Sidelines
by FanGirlFreak16
Summary: Middle school. It's a hard time in one's life. It's much harder when you have a twin brother who is in the opposite clique as you. Middle school involves friends, peer pressure, and girls. But as we find our cliques we find different sides of ourselves. And even possibly betrayal towards each other. Will we make it out as brothers anymore? Or twins at that? Human Au!
1. You'd Never See Me As The Same

I sat on the sidelines during gym class, watching as kids walked past me. Brown bangs falling in my eyes, my maroon pigment watching as everyone walks around the gym court, eyes glistening in fun, voices loud with laughter.

So maybe I had fibbed a bit, but it wasn't entirely a lie. My stomach seriously did hurt. But it didn't really matter. Besides the questioning looks my twin brother was giving me, no one said anything about me sitting out.

I didn't expect them to anyways. P.E. wasn't exactly my strong suit. I'd much rather be in a science lab looking through microscopes or mixing chemicals. And Raph knew that. But it wasn't too often that I just blew gym off. And, with my terrible immune system, I was sure that next period would be a never ending question fest.

I can see Raph talking to that kid, Casey Jones. I knew enough about him to understand that him and Raph were like two peas in a pod. Sure, sometimes I was jealous of Raph and Casey, but I didn't let it get to me too much. We still did plenty of things together. Plus, we kind of had to. I mean, we do share a room.

I pushed up my black, rectangular, glasses. Each time Raph passed me, he threw concerned glances towards my way. I rolled my eyes in turn. It was just like Big-Brother-Raphie to be so worried at a no big deal type thing.

Ok, I'll admit, maybe I've given my brothers a few scares in the past with my health, but a vigil eye wasn't exactly needed over me. I listened as the echoing voice of the gym teacher yelled at the students to get dressed. Immediately, Raphael ran to the locker rooms, wanting to get out as soon as possible so he could drill me with questions.

I stood up and slung my backpack over my shoulder. This oughta be good. I walked into the hall separating the gym from the locker rooms. Sure enough, Raph was already out.

And, though we are twins, we look nothing alike. For instance, I have brown hair and maroon eyes. Raph has black hair and emerald green eyes. His build is much bulkier with muscle than mine. I'm much skinner than he is. And we were bipolar opposites.

Where he succeeded in athletics, I succeeded in more academic approaches. Such as being in Lego Robotics, the Debate Team, science and math competitions, and plenty of science fairs. He went to plenty of wrestling and basketball games and competitions, which practically made him friends with everyone. For the nerd twin…not so much.

"Why didn't you play in gym?" Raph inquired as we walked out to our lockers, which, surprise, were right next to each other.

"My stomach's kind of upset, nothing big." I told him, putting the combination into my lock. I turned the black nozzle over to the right three times, then to the left twice, then right once, and the lock came undone.

"The last time you had a stomach ache," Raph deadpanned, "it turned into something so big we had to take you to the hospital."

"Ok," I muttered, "I get it. I'm weak. You don't have to rub it in." I reach for my social studies books and grab Raph's while I'm at it considering he's shorter than me.

He takes the books in his arms, and throws an apologetic set of eyes my way. "That's not what I meant," He said as we both began our way up the stairs to our social studies class. "I just hate seeing you like that. I don't like it when you're sick."

I rolled my eyes. "Makes two of us."

"I'm serious," Raph said, something dangerous hovering in his tone. "You've been to the hospital three times in the past four months. There's gotta be something that those doctors are missing."

"Well, we all know I have a sucky immune system," I stated, "and that's all that it is."

"I refuse to believe it."

"Well, there's nothing else to go off of, so you're just going to have to accept it." I said stubbornly. As we entered the classroom a combination of yelling, talking, laughing, and kids reading books could be seen and heard. I immediately took notice of Cody Jones.

He was a nice boy and a good friend of mine. And since we were in middle school now, cliques were everything. Raph was with the jocks, and I was with the nerds.

Shocker.

Cody looked up from his book and smiled as he waved me over. I smiled back as I walked towards him, sitting in my usual desk next to him.

"Did you hear that we're supposed to get a new girl at this school?" He asked me.

"Really?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah," He said, placing a hand on the back of his neck, "hopefully she's like us."

"Fat chance," I scoffed. "There hasn't been one girl yet to join the Lego Robotics Team. Most girls prefer jocks anyways. Why would she be in our teams when she could be a cheerleader?"

"Hey," Cody reprimanded, "it's possible. Not all girls are like that."

"A good majority, however." I scoffed.

Class went on for far too long. And that's weird coming from me. I love my classes. All of them. Well, except for P.E. Finally, I felt, the bell rang, signaling that we were all free to leave for home. This was a new feeling of ecstasy for me. I never felt joy from leaving school before.

Why now?

I once again slung the backpack over my shoulder, and walked down stairs towards my locker. I could hear the laughter of Raph and his friends not too far behind me. They always made fun of what little friends I had. Save for Raph. He hated it when his friends did that.

And so did I. He always yelled at them for it later, once the damage had already been done, I'm afraid. I undid my combination once more and placed my textbooks in my locker before shutting and locking my locker once more. I stood there, now, a foot pressed up against a locker, and my arms crossed around my middle as Raph rolled around the corner.

"Hey, Don."

"Hey, Raph."

"Hear about the new girl?"

"Sure did. Cody just told me about it."

"Yeah, Case just told me," Raph said as he stood on his tiptoes to reach the top of his locker. Once he was able to reach he dumped his books on the top shelf and shut the door. "I hope she's feisty. Maybe she'd join the jocks."

"We could sure use another person on the Robotics Team. It would be nice if we had a girl for a change." I sighed wishfully.

Raph chuckled as we began to walk towards the elementary school. He clapped a hand against my back. "Keep dreamin', brotha'."

I rolled my eyes as we entered the elementary school to pick up our younger brother. We both knew that Leo always left school as soon as it was over so he could go to work. It had been like that ever since Mom and Dad had died a good two years back.

I sighed. It was tough, but we got over it. We had a good amount of money left in the bank, and everything is fine. During the summer, Raph and I get jobs to help out. Raph and I didn't mind, though.

"Donnie! Raphie!" Mikey called, breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked at my eight-year-old brother and smiled.

"Hey, Mike. How was school?" I asked.

"School was awesome!" Mikey laughed. "We're learning how to subtract and add numbers. It's so easy."

I watched as Raph rubbed his knuckle against Mikey's cheek. "That's awesome, bro. I bet all of the kids love you."

Mikey took a short step back when Raph said that, and, quite frankly, I was a bit alarmed by this. "Well, no. Not everyone. Some kids say mean things to me cause I'm in special classes." He says.

I could feel my heart ache a bit. "Aw, bud, what do they say?"

Mikey scuffed his sneaker against the floor. "They call me stupid, and an idiot. They call me a reject. Freak." Mikey recited, his face looking at the white-tiled, school floor.

I could see the fire blazing in Raph's eyes. He was ticked. And so was I. But we'd deal with the kids later. I wrapped an arm around Mikey's shoulders before Raph could say anything. "Don't listen to them, Mikey," I told him as we neared the school exit. "They're just jealous of how awesome you are."

Mikey's face brightened at that remark. "Yeah," He said, "they're just jealous."

OoOoOoO

"That's still not the right thing to do," I said wearily. We had been doing this for an hour! "We can't just go and bash those kids' heads in. They're only in second grade."

"But they called our brother such horrid names!" Raph roared in anger, standing up from the wooden kitchen table that sat in the dining room. "How can you just let them go?!"

"I'm not," I said, standing up from my chair as well, but much calmer than Raph had, "implying that we just 'let them go'. I'm saying there's much less violent ways to deal with this type of problem."

Raph crossed his arms and turned his back towards me. "I don't understand how you can be so chill about this!" He said, whirling around to meet me face to face. "Those punks are hurting our little brother!"

My face now wore a frown. "I don't understand how you can be so hot headed towards those kids to actually say you want to hurt them!" I yell. "I don't agree with the way they're treating our brother any more than you do, but I don't agree with getting violent towards little kids!"

"I don't get why we're so different! You're supposed to be my twin brother, so why are you against what I'm saying?!" Raph yelled at me.

I growled. "One, I am your twin brother, two, scientists have proved that most twins are bipolar opposites! Which makes sense since I'm much more levelheaded than you are, my hotheaded twin!" I yelled.

He slammed his left hand down onto the wooden dining table. "Yeah, it also makes sense as to why I have a nerd for a brother!" He yelled. That left me in silence, though anger smoldered dangerously in the pit of my stomach.

How dare he! No, how could he?! I could feel a scowl grow on my face. This whole clique thing was a major joke! It just made everyone much more susceptible to bullying. And I most certainly was not going to be bullied by my own twin brother.

"You think I like having a jock as my twin?! It embarrasses me that I have such a slacker as a brother! You believe that sports and competitions are more important than your education! How do you think Mikey would feel about having a slacker as an older brother?! I don't understand what you're proud of! What is so great about beating someone up?!" I yelled. That's when I realized how hard I was gripping the side of the dining table.

I was pissed.

No.

That was an understatement.

I was _seething_.

Raph's eyes looked so angry. He looked as if he was seething as well, but he looked as if he was trying to keep it all in. Either that or find a great comeback.

"The hell with it." He said as he charged out of the front door. Once he did, I was hit with immense guilt and I fell into the pulled out kitchen chair, cradling my head in my right hand.

"Why did I say such things?" I asked myself.

"Donnie?" I heard my baby brother ask as he peeked his head out from behind the hallway corner.

I looked up and smiled sadly at him, my gap tooth showing off a bit. "Hey, Mike. What do you need?"

Mikey came over to me, his blonde curls falling a bit in his face. He placed a hand against my own. "Did you and Raphie have another fight?" He asked innocently.

I nodded sadly before going back to cradling my head in my right hand. "Yeah, Mike, we did. It got pretty nasty this time, too."

"Was it because of me?"

My head snapped up. I looked at him and shook my head quickly. "No, Mikey, it's never because of you! It's just that," I sighed gently, "well, Raph and I can never seem to meet eye to eye."

Mikey's head nodded sadly. Then he looked to the digital clock that sat on the counter top that separated the kitchen from the dining room. "When does Leo get back from work?"

I directed my eyes towards the digital clock as well.

 _5:23pm._

I looked back towards Mikey's ice cold, baby blue, eyes. "He'll be back in about another three hours, bud."

He nodded gently before looking back to the front door. "Will Raph come back?"

I sighed before placing my head back into my hand. "He will, Mike," I said. I felt a small smile creep onto my face when I heard the satisfied sound of the pitter patter of bare feet against the wooden floor. That smile was then replaced with a frown as I glanced back towards the front door.

"He always comes back."

OoOoOoO

I peeked around the wall that towered over the stairs as I listened to the booming voice of Leo lecturing Raph about how late he had stayed out. I looked to the digital clock on the counter that was easily seen from the stairs.

 _12:04am._

I sighed.

 _This is all my fault._

"How could you be so irresponsible as to leave this house for seven hours?!" Leo yelled, fire ablaze in his eyes, but I could make something else out as well.

Fear.

"You know how bad New York is at night! You could have been hurt or worse and it would have been too late by the time we got to you!"

"You aren't my boss!" Raph retaliated. "I can go out for as long as I want! I'm fourteen years old not four!"

"If you were more responsible," Leo yelled back, "I'd let you out later than just nine! But you haven't shown me that you are!"

"You aren't my father, Leo!" Raph yelled, anger so fierce in his voice, I was surprised that he didn't breathe fire while at he was at it. "And you never will be! You can't tell me what to do! You aren't my father, and I'm not going to treat you like you are!"

I gasped as I watched the sliver of hurt that entered Leo's dark blue eyes. I immediately moved around the corner of the walls that hid me away from view as I heard Raph begin to stomp up the stairs.

"Raph, come back here!" Leo yelled, but anger was no longer in it. No, now it was grievous and sympathetic. I watched as Raph turned his head back towards Leo, stopping for a moment.

But as I said it was only for a moment before he started walking right back up the stairs. I immediately ran to our room, jumping into my bed and taking off my glasses before falling limp under the covers to make it believable that I had been sleeping instead of listening in on them.

I held my breath slightly as Raph came into our room and shut the door. For the longest time I thought he had gone to bed, and I let out a sigh of relief.

And that's when the lights turned on.

"I know you were listening in." He said.

I didn't even bother to play stupid as I sat up in bed, not even bothering to put on my glasses. "I'm so sorry that I made you storm out like that, Raphael. I didn't mean to say such atrocious words to you. It's all my fault that Leo yelled at you like that."

"And I didn't even tell him what happened out there." Raph told me as he sat on his bed.

I looked at him with confused, fuzzy, eyes. "What happened?"

Raph sighed as he looked to the clock on his nightstand. "Not the time nor place, bro." He said as he turned out the light and lied down on his bed.

I cocked an eyebrow before walking to my twin's bedside, looking at him through bleary eyes. "Raph, what happened? I want to know. I won't tell Leo if you don't want me to, but can you at least tell your own twin?"

He didn't even open his eyes as his cheek continued to be pressed against his pillow. "Not now, bro. Go to sleep. I'll tell you later."

I sighed in impatience, but I complied to my older twin as I walked back to my bed, failing to make out the backpack that lied on the floor. I hit the ground with a hard _oof._

As I lied against the floor I could hear Raph say, "My backpack's on the floor."

I groaned lightly. "That would have been useful information about a minute ago."

I could hear as Raph shifted under his comforter. "Dork."

I rolled my eyes as I pushed myself off of the floor and onto my hands. I brought myself up onto my feet. I walked over to my bed and slipped underneath the covers.

I lied awake for a bit, finding sleep to be hard to find. But Raph must have thought I was asleep. I heard a bit of shuffling as I guessed he sat up in bed. It sounded like he was ruffling his own hair and rubbed his hands against his face.

"I can't tell you what actually happened. You'd never see me as the same again."

 **Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know. Your opinion matters. :)**


	2. More Than What Meets The Eye

"Do you really think that will work?" I asked Cody as I looked at the new program for our Lego Robotics project.

Cody shrugged. "It's worth a shot. And if it doesn't work, we just think of a new program."

I nodded to the right. "Ok. Have at it." I told him as I moved out of the way. He nodded as he moved towards the computer and input the transactions that we supposedly needed. I looked to the robot as it began to move and my eyes brightened as it did everything that it needed to.

"Cody, you're a genius!"

Cody smirked as he blew on his fingernails. "So I've been told."

I look at him with the hardest glare I can muster. "You're so cocky. You know that right?"

He shrugged, a smile lit on his face. "Yeah, I know," He then moved towards the robot and picked it up. "When's the competition again?"

"December 6th I believe." Tristen, a boy originally from India, said. His Indian accent was very heavy, almost as heavy as Raphael's Brooklyn accent.

"December 6th," I repeated. "Where at?"

"Albany." Tristen replied.

I whistled. "The capital of New York? Now that's awesome."

"You're right about that," Cody said as he clapped his hand against my back. "I'm excited about the competition. I hear the competition is extremely hard. But I have no doubt that we'll win!"

"I hear," Tristen began, "that they've won every competition that they've encountered."

"Yeah," I said, sliding my right hand against the table before throwing it in the air as a fist. "But that's not going to happen this year! This year, we're taking home the gold!"

"Yeah!" Cody, Tristen, Spencer, and Kota yelled, while Damian just threw his hand in the air, on the account of him having the inability to speak.

 _Ring, ring!_

I groaned. "Welp, there's the bell guys. See ya tomorrow. We'll work on other tactics when we get the chance." We all slung our backpacks over our shoulders as we departed to our own classes.

Or at least I began to.

"Hey, nerd, where ya goin'?" I heard someone ask from behind me. I tensed slightly but tried to ignore it as I continued to trudge to class. I could hear him growl behind me as his voice got louder. "Hey, nerd, I'm talkin' to you!"

 _Just keep on walking. You don't need to listen to him._

I could hear what sounded like running, and I began to run as well. The walls reduced to just flashes of white as my adrenaline began to course through my body.

"Get him!" I heard someone yell.

"Shit." I curse. Leo would have scolded me for using such profanity, but Leo wasn't here.

And Leo wasn't about to be beaten into a bloody pulp.

I run faster. Well, as fast as I can anyways. I fly past the stairs that led up to my next class and keep running straight.

 _I have to lose them, but how?_ I look all around the school though the walls continued to look just like white flashes. _There's gotta be something here! Anything!_

But it's too late.

I'm grabbed by the collar of my shirt and am yanked back. I give a loud yelp, but, more than likely, not loud enough for anyone in their classrooms to hear. "Tried to run didn't you?"

"What did it look like I was doing?" Me and my big mouth. I flinch as I'm brought closer to the guy's face.

"Are you giving me lip?"

"Uh, n-n-no! I…I was just, uh…"

He gripped my arm and he gripped it tight. I didn't yell in pain. No, that's what he wanted. He wanted me to yell, cry, and whimper in pain. I wasn't going to give him that satisfaction.

"Hands off my, little brother!" I looked all around for the source of the voice, but I couldn't see anyone. _Who was that?_

"I thought this was what you wanted." The boy holding me by both the collar of my shirt and arm said to the person.

"I was just mad. I hadn't meant any of the words I said," The voice said, a hint of regret could be detected. "I'd never want any harm to come to him. Now let him go!"

The guy holding me growled and threw me to the ground as if he were throwing an unwanted bag of trash. "Get out of here." He growled at me.

I nodded uneasily, licking the front of my purple banded braces. I stood on shaky legs before running from the miscreants who had messed with me.

But I could hear another set of feet running behind me.

I gulped and began to run faster. "Leave me alone!" I yelled back at the person following me.

"Don, it's only me!" The voice yelled. I stopped. That's the voice that had been speaking to those jerks. Now that the adrenaline had mainly worn off I could recognize that voice.

I turned around to face him. "Raphael?"

He nodded. "Yeah, Don, it's only me."

"Wait," I said, shaking my head in disbelief, remembering the words that those jerks had said, "you told them to do that to me?"

Raph's eyes held regret. "Don, I…"

"Did you or did you not tell them to do that to me?" I demanded, my backpack hanging on one shoulder instead of two.

He sighed, dropping his backpack to the floor right next to his feet. "I was mad, Don. I didn't know what I was saying or doing."

I shook my head, slowly backing away from him. "I can't believe you, Raph. Tell me you're joking."

Raph just dropped his head so it was looking at his feet. My eyes widened in betrayal and shock.

"How could you, Raphael? You actually wanted them to hurt me?!"

"No that's not-"

"Shut up, Raphael!" I yelled, cutting him off. He shut right up. "How could you?! Your own brother! Your own twin!"

"Don, I was just-"

"Don't tell me you were just angry, Raphael! You actually intended for them to hurt me!" I screeched.

"Don, I'm-"

"No," I said with a sigh as I turned my back to him. "Guess what? I'm done," I said as I began to walk towards the stairs and up to my class. "Goodbye, Raphael."

OoOoOoO

I sat up in my bed, panting and sweating profusely. _It was just a dream. But it seemed so real!_ I look over to Raph who is still sleeping peacefully, and I shoot him a fond smile. How could someone make me go so insane yet keep me from going over the edge?

I glance at the clock on my bedside. _Why's it so fuzzy? Oh!_ I reach for my glasses on my nightstand and place them on my face. _Duh!_ I glance at the clock.

3:02am.

I groan quietly. _I'll never be able to get back to sleep!_ I throw my feet over the side of the bed and rub my face with my hands, pushing my glasses up my forehead. As they fall back in place my eyes glance around the room. Above my bed was a poster of the times tables.

Above Raph was a poster of John Cena. I sighed. _We're so different._ The walls of our room was a very pale blue, and the carpet was a nice color of white. I pushed back my light purple comforter and stood on the floor, walking towards the door. I turn the doorknob slowly as to not make any noise to wake Raph. I slowly open the door, being careful of how far I opened it to make sure that very limited light from the kitchen entered our room.

As soon as I exited our room, I cracked the door so I could get back in easily. I walked to the stairs and began to creep down them slowly, their carpeted features padding my feet. Once I reached the bottom my feet immediately hit the cold parquet. I gasped a bit, bouncing on my tiptoes.

"Cold floor, cold floor!" I chanted quietly. I immediately hopped over to the living room that stood right beside the kitchen. I let out a sigh of relief as I once again felt the warm carpet padding. I look around our living room.

The walls are white along with gray carpeting and the room was barely lit save for the light of the kitchen glowing into the living room. I look to the closet that was in the living room as well. I walk over to the closet and turn on the light switch that was inside it.

There, packed away, were several cardboard boxes. I smiled. _This is what I was looking for._ I immediately take out one box and open it, knowing what was going to be stored away.

Many, many, pictures.

The first one on top is one of Raph and I as six-year-old children. I smiled widely. The photo showed Raph having me held in a held lock, rubbing his knuckles against the top of my head, my light brown hair being all messed up by the rough action. _I remember this day!_

" _Can't catch me!" I had called as I ran around the house like a mad child._

" _I sure can!" Raph had yelled after me. I saw our currently nine-month pregnant mom, Shen, laughing at us._

" _Raphie can't catch me, Raphie can't catch me!" I chanted as I continued to run circles around the house._

" _Oh yeah?!" Raph yelled as he jumped and tackled me straight to the ground._

" _Ah, Raphie," I whined, "that's cheating!"_

 _Raph smirked above me. "But I caught ya, didn't I?"_

 _A nine-year-old Leo laughed as well as he swung on a swing with his good buddy, Usagi. Raph immediately yanked me up by my sleeve and held his arm around my neck, instantaneously digging his knuckles into my scalp._

" _Say it!" He demanded._

" _What?! No, Raphie!" I whined as he continued to scratch away at my scalp._

" _Say it!"_

" _I don' wanna!"_

" _I won't let you go until you do!" He challenged._

 _I sighed. "Fine. Uncle!" I cried as his knuckles had dug deeper._

 _Finally, he let up as promised. "Big bully." I whined with a pout as I rubbed the top of my head._

" _Dork." He retaliated._

I sighed. "Where have the good times gone?" I asked myself. Suddenly, I felt a bursting sensation in my throat as I began to cough roughly. _Not again!_ I coughed harder and harder and harder until I vomited, directing my head away from the box full of memories.

Once the vomiting ceased the coughing continued to rupture through my throat. "R-Raph! L-Leo!" I called for help through ragged breaths and harsh coughs.

I waited maybe a good three minutes and no one had come down. That's when I decided to try again. "R-Raph! Leo!"

That's not who came to my aid, but my youngest, eight-year-old brother. "Donnie?" He asked as he walked down the stairs. Oh, I desperately wanted to answer him, but the harshness of my coughing wouldn't calm down. He turned his head up towards the stairs. "Raph, Leo! Something's wrong with Donnie!"

Mikey instantly ran to me and supported me. Though I wanted to tell him that everything was going to be ok, my words continued to fail me. I could hear the sound of feet bounding down the stairs, and there was Raph running up towards me, Leo not far behind.

Raph gripped my hand while Leo turned on the living room light before making his way towards me. "Mikey, dial 9-1-1." Leo instructed as he rubbed circles in my back. Mikey nodded as he ran off to the home phone so that he could dial the number demanded of him.

"Can you breathe?" Raph asked me. I shook my head. I was scared! _Why does this keep happening?!_

"My brother can't stop coughing and he vomited," I could hear Mikey speak into the receiver of the phone. For a moment I couldn't hear anything. Just a slight ringing in my ears. But that's when Mikey spoke once more. "No, he can't breathe. And it looks like he's about to go to sleep."

"Don," Every word that came out of his mouth echoed like a ton of balls smacking against a wall due to a fan blowing them around, "if you go to sleep, I swear I will pound you in!"

"Don't go to sleep, Donnie!" Leo told me.

But right at this instant, I found sleep not at all hard to find.

OoOoOoO

I awoke to the loud sounds of beeping, but not the loud beeping sound of my alarm clock. No, this was the familiar sound of a heart monitor. I opened my eyes only to close them almost instantly as my pupils were hit with a blinding, bright, light.

"C'mon, Donnie, open your eyes." I heard a voice. Unwillingly, I once again blinked my eyes open, blinking them furiously as to get used to the bright light.

"There ya go, Don. That's it. How're you feeling?" The voice asked.

I groaned lightly. "My throat burns." I said in a raspy, whisper like voice.

He sighed. "A bet. You were coughing still even after you lost consciousness."

Finally, things became a bit clearer. That's when I recognized him. His dark, black hair, his emerald green eyes, his red banded braces. "Raphael?"

"Yeah, it's me you dork." He said trying to sound mocking, but it only came off as worried.

"How long…have I been…out?" I asked through gasping breaths.

I felt Raph stroking the side of my head. "About forty-five minutes."

"What…time…is it?"

Raph glanced at the clock before directing his gaze back towards me. "3:52am."

"Where…are the others?"

Raph directed his finger to a chair that held my baby brother. "Mikey zonked out not too long ago. He wanted to stay awake, but he's eight years old, and it is way past his bed time. He told me to wake him up when you woke up, but he probably won't wake up. He's too tired."

I directed my gaze towards the chair watching as Mikey lied curled up in a ball, a blanket draped over his small frame. _It's a wonder I didn't notice him sooner._ "Place him…on the bed." I said seeing as how Mikey looked cramped on that tiny bed.

Raph nodded. He scooped the small child up in his arms and placed Mikey on the bed right next to me. I smiled fondly as Mikey snuggled up close to my chest. "Where's Leo?"

"He's talkin' to the doctor," Raph said, pointing his thumb towards the door. "We need to find out why all of this is happening to-"

"Raph," Leo said as he peeked his head through the door, "can I talk to you for a moment?"

Raph nodded once before following Leo out into the hallway. I smiled gently as Mikey's head cuddled his head gently against my chest. I began to gently stroke Mikey's curly blonde hair.

"What?! That's all that they found?! But there has to be more to this than what meets the eye! He is not ok! Have you been here for the past four months?! This doesn't just have to do with his immune system!" I heard Raph yell.

I frowned lightly and directed my gaze back towards Mikey. His skin was a very light and pale color that matched his extremely blonde, curly, hair. His eyes were a light blue as well. Ice cold, baby blue, eyes as I like to call them.

I could hear a sigh from the other side of the door. "And he doesn't even know what I did."

OoOoOoO

"You had to go to the hospital again? That's a bummer, dude." Cody told me as he dropped two drops of nitrogen into the solution.

"Yeah," I said as I looked under the meniscus of the liquid concoction, "and it really sucks because they said it was just a rough fever. Raph had a nervous breakdown due to the fact that they have said the same thing for the past…I don't know…four, six years?"

"Well, shoot, man," Cody said as he placed the mixture over a burner, "if you were my twin brother, I'd have a nervous breakdown too. I mean, the same answer gets kind of annoying after you practically _know_ that it's something more."

"Yeah, I guess so." I said as I adjusted my glasses.

"So," Cody began as he observed the mixture, "how's that little brother of yours? Is he doing fine?"

"Yeah, I'd say so," I said as I wrote down my own observations, "if you can call creating pranks and causing havoc fine."

"Sounds normal to me." Cody laughed.

"You've got that right!" I laughed.

I heard snickering behind me. I turned my head to the students who were behind me to find Raph's little clique, but Raph and I didn't have the same science class. Just his clique. And, when Raph wasn't around, his clique and I weren't on necessarily good terms.

"Don't listen to them, Donatello. They don't understand the first thing about academic importance."

"Yeah," I said with a sigh, "I guess not."

Cody wore a small frown upon his face, but then he brightened up a bit. "Hey, I'm working on a new robot design at home. Wanna help with some of the upgrades?"

I perked up a bit. "Sure. I still have to update Metalhead a bit as well."

"You mean that robot that Michelangelo named?" Cody chuckled fondly.

I nodded with a smile. "Yeah, that robot. Plus, what's your robot's name?"

"Well," Cody said as he took the mixture off of the burner, "I thought about naming it Serling."

"That's a nice name," I said as I took the mixture into my own prongs. "I'm sure Mikey would like it."

"I can't see how he wouldn't," Cody laughed, "that kid is a naming machine."

 _Ring, ring._

"Go on to class, man. I'll clean up the experiment since you did it yesterday." Cody said as he began to dump the solution out.

I nodded. "Sure, dude. I'll do it tomorrow." I slung my backpack over my shoulder once more as I went out of the science room, walking towards my locker.

When my combination was undone and my locker was open, I gasped. Everything in my locker was destroyed! Everything! All of my books, papers…just everything!

"No, no, no, no!" I cried as I looked through all of the ruined work and books. "Who would do such a thing?" I asked broken heartedly.

I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder, and I looked behind me. There stood Damian, in all of his glory. Damian was a skinny, semi-short thirteen-year-old boy on my Lego Robotics Team.

"Are you ok?" Damian signed with his hands, having the inability to speak.

I shook my head. "No, Dame, I'm not. How could someone destroy everything in my locker? Everything that I worked on?"

"I may know who did it." Damian signed, his golden eyes warm and soft.

"Who?" I asked.

"Raphael and his posse. They were here after school yesterday, and Raph looked pretty mad. It sounded like you two had gotten into a fight. I think he may have done this along with the other 'cool' students." Damian signed, his hands moving quickly and gracefully at that.

I shook my head, confusion etched into my brow. "There's no way Raph would do that. I mean, sure he gets angry at times, but he never goes as far as destroying my stuff."

"Ok," Damian signed, "it was just a thought."

"Thanks for the observations anyways. I'll talk to him later." I said as I tried to get my papers and books together as best as I could, but not one page was left un-ripped.

Damian knelt beside me and began to pick up papers with me. I looked at him confused. "What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you pick up." Damian signed.

"Oh," I said, a bit embarrassed, "thanks."

As we continued to pick up papers through the mess and look to see if they were ripped, a thought came across my mind.

 _Did Raph do this?_

 **So do you think Raph did it, or did he do something much worse? Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know. Your opinion matters. :)**


	3. I Don't Want To Be Stupid

"He what?!" I asked the principal in shock. The principal knew of our situation. Our parents' death, Leo leaving for work after school every day, and such, so when a talk was needed after school, I was the one who was called to his office. Especially if it concerned Mikey.

"Michelangelo got into a fight." The principal repeated.

I shook my head. _There has to be more to this! This isn't like my baby brother!_ "Who started the fight?"

"Technically," The principal said, his hands folded on top of his desk, "Michelangelo did. But, as you know, Donatello, I am a fair man. I did see one of the boys push Michelangelo first, but Michelangelo did throw the first punch."

"But it must have been out of self-defense." I protested.

"Please, Donatello," The principal said, waving a hand down as if to tell me to calm down, "allow me to finish. I do not believe that Michelangelo would have acted out as such if he weren't provoked. Now since he was provoked, I do believe he did it strictly out of defense. But we both know that even if it is out of self-defense, the school will not allow me to let this go unattended. Your brother's a good kid, Donatello, but I'm afraid I'll have to keep him after school for two Wednesdays so that he can help clean a classroom."

"Yes," I said with a sigh, "of course."

The principal smiled sadly at me. "Well, the kids who provoked it get a good month of cleaning."

I smiled gently back at him. "That's good."

The principal chuckled before his expression melted to seriousness once more. "I also feel like one more issue should be addressed."

I looked at him in confusion. "And what's that?"

He sighed, his hands still folded on top of his desk, his eyes peering at me through his wire glasses. "I believe, along with Michelangelo's teachers, that Michelangelo has a condition called dyslexia."

I scrunch my eyes in confusion. "I haven't seen much of a problem. He doesn't ask for much help."

"Has he read to you or written in front of you?"

"Well, no, but-"

"What I'm saying is," The principal said as he took his glasses off of his face, "that his teachers have been monitoring the way he reads and writes. He reads his d's as if they were b's, and he writes the same way. And it's not just with d's and b's, it's also with m's and w's and other letters."

I furrowed my brow but nodded. "Ok. I'll talk to Leo about this. Both situations, I mean."

The principal nodded. "I know you will." With that he dismissed me, and I slung my backpack over my shoulder before walking out to the waiting room of the principal's office.

Mikey's eyes immediately directed towards me, his eyes glistening in the light a bit more than they should. He didn't speak, and neither did I. Was I mad at him? No. Was I surprised at him? Yes. Were we going to have a talk? Yes. But I wasn't mad at him.

His eyes shone brightly as if he would cry at any given moment. "Are you mad at me, Donnie?"

I took in a deep breath at the words my brother asked. I knelt down to Mikey's height on the bench he was sitting. I take his hands into mine. "No, Mike, I'm not mad. I'm just very surprised."

"I'm sorry, Donnie," Mikey sobbed, tears falling from his eyes, "but those kids were being so mean! They were pushing me, and I didn't know what to do! So I…so I…"

"Hey," I shushed as I brought him into a tight hug while he sobbed and cried on my shoulder, his voice whimpering and wavering, "don't cry. Everything's ok. The principal isn't mad at you either. He knows why you did it; he just can't let it go. You have to clean classrooms for two Wednesdays, but that's it. Those mean kids have to do it for a month." I soothed as I petted the back of Mikey's head as I gripped him tightly.

He sobbed loudly. "I don't like being stupid, Donnie." He sobbed into my shoulder. My heart broke.

"Mike. Mikey. Michelangelo. Listen to me ok?" He nods as he keeps his head buried in my chest, his tears still soaking my purple T-Shirt. "You are not stupid. You are very smart."

"But," Mikey sniffed, "those kids keep calling me stupid. I don't want to be stupid, Donnie. I want to be smart like you, Raph, and Leo."

Tears of my own welled up in my own eyes. _How could my only baby brother think that he's stupid?_ "Mikey," I say, my voice breaking a little, "you are very smart. I know that you are."

"I don't feel smart." He whispered. I sigh as I shift him into my arms and sit on the bench, rocking him back and forth. I kiss his forehead gently.

"Mikey, picture this. There's a little boy who is the funniest, most creative person that I know. He draws so much and can make a game out of two sticks and a used piece of tape. But kids at school call him stupid, and he believes them. He calls himself stupid and thinks he isn't smart. What would you tell him?"

Mikey sniffs. "I would tell him that his family loves him very much, and that no matter what those kids say, that he's smart in his own special way."

I smiled down at Mikey. "Good, because that boy is you, Mikey. Just practice what you preach and you'll be golden," I felt Mikey nod against my chest. "Alright. You ready to go home?"

Once again Mikey nodded. I smiled and began to stand. "Good, let's go."

OoOoOoO

"He said what?" Leo asked with a crestfallen look on his face.

"Yeah," I said as I looked to Leo and Raph, "he told me that he didn't like being stupid. He said he wanted to be smart like us." I reported.

Raph growled. "We should have done something about those kids the first time they said something. Now they've gone way too far."

"Agreed," Leo said, dragging a hand down his face. "We need to talk to a principle about this. This is too far. Mikey is not allowed to call himself stupid. He is far from the word."

I nodded. "But that's why he got into that fight. Those bullies were pushing him, and he did it strictly for self-defense."

"And I believe it," Leo said, "but schools can't let any sort of violence go."

"And that's not it." I add.

"What else is there?" Raph asked, not wanting to hear more of the heart wrenching conversation.

I sighed, placing my hands under the wooden table of which my other two brothers and I sat at. "Principal Johnson believes that Mikey is dyslexic."

Raph stiffened slightly. "So he, like, sees certain letters backwards?"

I nodded side to side. "Well, technically, yes. It makes reading, and writing much more difficult."

Leo sighed as he glanced to the clock. I glanced to the clock as well.

 _11:04pm._

"Let's talk about this in the morning. It's way too late to be having this serious of a discussion. We'll talk tomorrow since it's a weekend." Leo said, rubbing his hands together.

Raph and I nodded.

"Donnie, Raphie, Leo?" Our eyes directed towards the wooden staircase with carpet padding.

"Yes, Mikey?" We all asked in unison.

He rubbed his eye sleepily. "I had a nightmare, can you guys sleep with me?" We all looked at each other, a small smile on each of our faces. Mikey didn't need the spoken word; he knew that by the looks on our faces that the answer was a yes.

He smiled back at us as he began to run to Leo's room, looking behind his shoulder to watch us run after him. I laughed at my brother's playful giggle as he jumped onto our oldest brother's rather large bed.

 _That's the boy who called himself stupid,_ I reminded myself. _The little boy who wants all of his brothers to sleep with him because he had a nightmare believes that he is stupid._ But that wasn't what I wanted to think about at the moment. Right now, I wanted to snuggle up with my little brother and two big brothers and just fall asleep.

And that's what we were going to do. That was exactly what we were going to do. I jumped onto the bed right after Mikey followed by Raph and finally Leo. Mikey's baby blue orbs were so full of life that it was hard to imagine the words that he had spoken just a few hours earlier.

I couldn't take it. I wrapped my arms around my baby brother tightly. And he melted into my embrace. He closed his eyes, a smile on his face, and he hugged me back as tightly as he could. Then Raph joined the embrace and Leo, too.

Leo had tears falling from his face, and, though he'd never admit it, Raph had tears welled up in his eyes. It's probably because it had just dawned on them both that our baby brother had called himself stupid.

"We love you, Mikey. So much." Leo sniffed as he clutched the small boy in his arms.

Mikey chuckled innocently. "I love you, bros, too." He said before a yawn erupted from his throat. I smiled gently at him as his eyes began to flutter shut. I yawn myself before snuggling under the covers, Mikey still in all of our arms.

 _Yeah, we'd talk about this in the morning._

OoOoOoO

"Mikey, can you read this to me?" I asked, Leo and Raph next to me. It was a simple book. _The Cat in the Hat_ wasn't exactly too hard of a read.

Mikey furrowed his brow into one of concentration. "Donnie…" Mikey asked.

"Yes, Mike?"

"The words are all over the page. That's how they are at school. They look like they're floating all over the page." Mikey said, his brow still furrowed.

I sighed and looked to Leo and Raph; each of their gazes were sad and sympathetic. I looked at Mikey. "Can you at least read one page?"

Mikey looked at the page, his brow still furrowed, his eyes squinted. "Thing…one…anb…thing…tmo…"

"You can stop right there," I told Mikey with a sad sigh. He looks at me in confusion but places the book down onto the table. I take Mikey's hands into mine. "Mikey, I think I know why you're in special classes."

"Why?" Mikey asked anxiously.

I sighed as my grip tightened a bit. "Mike, you have a condition called dyslexia."

"Dys-what-ia?" Mikey asked, confusion etched onto his face.

"Dyslexia," I repeat. "Dyslexia is where the brain scrambles up words and makes it harder for the reader to read."

Mikey's face fell, his eyes glistening now with unshed tears. "So I really am stupid?" He asked, a crestfallen look pasted onto his face.

I sigh sadly and shake his shoulders. "No, Mike, this does not mean that you are stupid. It just challenges you a bit more than other kids."

Mikey sniffed lightly, a single tear falling from his face. "I don't want dyslexia, Donnie. Make it go away."

I frown, a tear falling from my own eye. "I'm sorry, Mike, but I can't." Mikey takes my hands off of his shoulders and buries his face in his hands.

"Why am I so stupid?" He asks through sobs. "I hate it so much."

My heart aches. My chest burns. I'm shaking I soon realize. My hands tremble, my lip is quivering. My eyes are glossy with thousands of unshed tears, and a lump has made its way into my throat, choking me so that I cannot breathe, let alone speak.

Raph walks up to Mikey and picks him up into his arms. "You are not stupid, Mikey. Do you hear me? I swear if you ever call yourself stupid again, I will beat you," Mikey tensed slightly at the words, and Raph sighed. "Just don't ever say that again, Mike."

OoOoOoO

"So we have the correct program right?" I asked looking at the robot that sat before me.

"We should." Damian signed.

"I don't see how we couldn't," Spencer said, "I mean, you and Cody are our best programmers."

"Well," I said looking at the tiny robot, "it seems to do everything that we need it to. I think we're done with it."

"Alright team," Cody said, clapping his hands together, "we've got the correct program down, and we're ready for the competition."

"Hello?" A small voice came. We directed our eyes towards the door, our eyes widening. A girl with long blue hair that curled at the end stood there. "Is this the Lego Robotics Team?" Her small voice asked.

"Well, uh," I answered walking up towards the door, "yes, but you aren't interested in joining, are you?"

"Actually," She said, stepping fully into the room, "I am."

"Well," Cody said, walking up to the girl and placing a hand against her shoulder, "then, you've come to the right place."

"Sweet." She said smiling. Something about her smile, though. She was wearing braces! She wore blue bands around the brackets as well. Her eyes were also protected by black rimmed glasses. For some odd reason, however, I felt unsure of her. _Why would a girl want to join our group?_

"We don't need any more members." I said sharper than I had intended.

Her face fell, her smile faded, her glistening eyes lost their shine. "Oh," She said, her voice full of sadness and disappointment, "ok. It was just a thought, I guess. I'll, uh…leave you guys to it." And with that she opened the door and exited.

Cody looked at me with scowl. "Dude," He said, a bit of anger evident in his voice, "what the heck was that? She just wanted to join the Robotics Team."

"Well," I said as I picked up the small robot, "I don't think we can trust her. I mean, who knows? This may have been just one big dare."

"It didn't look like a dare to me," Spencer told me as he neared me. "She looked really upset when you rejected her."

"Ok, I didn't do it to be mean," I stated. "I did it because I don't want any of us to get hurt. I mean, what if she's with a really popular clique and tries to hurt us or separate us or-"

"This," Cody said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, "is not _High School Musical,_ ok. This is real life, and we should have given her chance."

 _Ring, ring._

I sighed as we all began to file out of the room. "I'll think about it, but I'm not too sure about this."

Cody sighed, shaking his head. "Well, you better get sure." We then parted ways, Cody having gym class at this time and me having science.

 _Hopefully I don't run into that girl again,_ I thought a bit irritably.

Upon entering the science classroom, I look around the room. There's that girl again. Her eyes were downcast at a blank piece of paper sitting in front of her, her eyes were still empty. _Ok, now I'm feeling a little guilty._

She then brought her pencil down onto the paper and began to make many marks. This went on for the next five minutes until the bell rang.

"I'm sorry, students," Our science teacher said as she poked her head into the room, "but there is a situation that I must take care of first." And with that she disappeared once more.

"So, uh," April O'Neal, the most popular girl in school, said, "Fang, was it? Whatcha writing there?"

I gulp. _Oh no, this could get bad._

She looked up hesitantly and looked into April's eyes. "Oh, um, it's for my eyes only. I'm sorry." She said politely.

April laughed smugly as she took the paper right from Fang. "Hey!" Fang shouted in protest.

April only laughed as her eyes glided down the paper. "Things haven't been the easiest," April read aloud, "since I decided to move to New York. I only wanted to join the Robotics Team, but that dream has been shot down."

"Give it back!" Fang pleaded.

I couldn't take it anymore. I ran up to April and ripped the paper right out of her hand. "Leave her alone!" I yelled. I heard a big group of 'oo's' around us as I looked to the paper in my hand.

April looked at me menacingly, walking towards me. "Oh, yeah? And what are you going to do if I don't?"

 _You have to fight your own battles, Donatello, Raphael isn't always going to be around to fight them for you._

I look into her green eyes. "Or I will tell everyone about what you got on your science test."

Her eyes widened before she scowled and walked to her chair. I walked over to Fang and handed her the paper. "I think this belongs to you." She looks at me a bit surprised.

"Th-Thanks." She says a bit unsure of herself.

I smile at her. "I'm Donatello." I say as I extend my hand out to her.

She smiles slightly as she shakes mine gently. "Fang."

OoOoOoO

"Have you met the new girl?" I asked Raph as we walked down the sidewalk to our house, Mikey holding onto my hand tightly.

"Yeah," He said. "She seems really smart."

"Well," I said as Mikey kicked a stone, "she did want to join the Robotics Team." I tell him.

"Did you say yes?"

"I may have blown up at her." I say sheepishly.

Raph cocked an eyebrow and sent a glance towards my way. "Why?"

"Raph," I say with a sigh, "when you're a nerd, you have to be careful who you talk to so that you don't get hurt. Say she was one of April's friends and we had accepted her. April would have so much information to use against us." I explain.

Raph shook his head. "Bro, if there's anything I've learned, it's that people may seem one way, but are really the opposite of what you had originally thought."

"Have you talked to her?" I inquired.

"Yes," Raph answered, "and I feel like there's something up with her."

"Oh?" I inquire.

Mikey gasped and took off. Raph and I exchanged quick glances of confusion before taking off after Mikey. "Mikey, where are you going?!" We called after him.

He left our visual range, and Raph and I were freaking out. "Mikey, where did you go, bud?!" I called.

"Mikey, if you don't come here, I will pound you in so hard!" Raph yelled.

"Donnie, Raphie, come quick!" We heard a small voice.

"Mikey," I called, "where are you, buddy?!"

"Donnie, Raphie!" Mikey yelled. And that's when I saw him. He was in the middle of an alleyway, kneeling down by something.

"Mikey, what are you doing?" I ask as I run over to him. That's when I see a small kitten. The kitten had orange, tabby, fur and green eyes. Its leg was all bloody and its mews sounded pained.

"We can't leave her here." Mikey whined. Raph took a look at the cat, his eyes softening slightly.

"Maybe I can save her." I offered looking to Raph.

Raph looked at me, eyes looking doubtful. "Do we even have enough money to take care of a cat?"

I sighed. "I don't know, Raph. But it's practically torturing the poor creature if we leave her here." I say. Mikey then scoops the small kitten up into his arms.

"You have to help her, Donnie. I don't wanna leave her alone like this." Mikey said with a pout on his lips.

I sighed and looked to Raphael. "I can help the kitten, but I don't think we can keep her, Mikey."

Mikey nodded. "Ok."

OoOoOoO

"All done, pretty kitty." I said with a small laugh. The cat mewed in thanks as it batted its tail about.

"Is she better?" Mikey asked as he entered the garage.

I chuckled. "I fixed her leg, but it may take a bit for her to be actually fully healed."

Mikey nodded as he petted the cat. "Klunk." He said with a content sigh.

I look back to my baby brother. "Huh?"

"Klunk."

"What's a Klunk?"

Mikey pointed to the kitten. "She is."

I sighed lightly as I left the garage only to be encountered by Raph who was sitting on the couch. "Howdy, ho, Ranger Joe!" He joked.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Really? We're doing _Full House_ references now?"

"Yep." Raph said with a pop of the 'p'.

I shook my head as I walked out to the kitchen and looked at the calendar. "Hey, Raph, did you figure out when that twin day was supposed to be?"

"Oh yeah! I think that's in about three weeks or so."

"Still up for it?"

"Heck, yeah!" Raph said. I laughed. Raph and I had always thought of _Twin Day_ as a tradition. _Twin Day_ was where twins went inside a building and went against other twins in competitions.

The front door then creaked open revealing Leo with a grim look on his face.

I take one look at his expression, and I know something is up. "Leo, what's wrong?"

Leo looked to Raph. "Raph," He said calmly, "something has happened to Casey."

Raph looked at Leo, fear and concern written on his face. "What? What happened?"

Leo sighed as he placed a hand on Raph's shoulder. "Casey's little brother, Cody, found Casey in an alley. He was jumped. He was roughed up pretty bad, Raph."

Raph's eyes were filled with fear, concern, and overall anger. "Is he ok? Where is he now?"

"Calm down, Raph," Leo instructed as he continued to grip Raph's shoulder. "He's going to be ok, but he's in the hospital right now."

Raph looked to me, and I looked back at him. Why did he look so torn? So upset? I mean, I would be too if one of my friends were like this, but he looked absolutely _pained._ Almost like the day Mom and Dad had died. But not quite there, yet.

"Can we go see him, Leo?" Raph asked, finally breaking the hold on my eyes.

Leo nodded once before looking towards me. "Do you think you can watch Mikey while we go? I don't want to take Mikey to the hospital if it isn't for someone who he is blood related with."

I nodded, a small smile lined up on my face. "Yeah, I can take care of the rug rat for a bit."

Leo looked at me before getting the keys to his car. He smiled. "Thanks, Don. We'll see you both in a bit." And with that both Leo and Raph exited the house.

I sighed a bit and took out my phone. I looked at for a bit before unlocking the home screen and going to Cody's contact.

 _How you holding up?_

I hit the send button and sat back into the couch, my eyes closed, my head pressed against the back cushion. _Is this a bad dream? How could Casey be jumped? He's extremely popular._

I felt a tiny buzz in my hand and I looked at the phone.

 _I'm ok, just a bit shaken up._

I sighed. I'm sure he was.

OoOoOoO

"Can we watch a movie, Donnie?" Mikey asked me. We didn't have cable, and the TV we had was a small one that sat on an end table. None of us really complained though. We didn't mind having such a small TV. At least we _had_ one.

"Bud, you know that just because I'm watching you doesn't mean that you can stay up late and watch a movie on a school night." I told him as he jumped around me in little circles.

"Please!" He pleaded as he got down on his knees and folded his hands. "I'll take a shower! I'll bark, sit, play dead, roll over, beg, I'll even shake hands!"

I laughed lightly at his offers. "You do need a shower anyways. Maybe a short movie, but nothing too long."

Mikey's eyes brightened as he jumped to his feet and into my arms, nudging my face with his as if he were licking me like a dog. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I snickered at my brother's antics. "Ok, ok! Down doggy!"

Mikey jumped out of my arms and ran to the bathroom so that he could get into his shower. I couldn't help, but laugh at my baby brother. _Oh, how I love his antics._

OoOoOoO

Halfway into the movie Mikey had already zonked out. I couldn't help the tiny chuckle that had erupted from my throat as his cheek pressed against my arm. I lied my head on top of his.

I then put my head back up and looked towards the clock on the kitchen counter.

 _9:03pm._

I shake my head and lie it back down on top of Mikey's. _They told me that they'd be back home by around 9:34. That's enough time for the movie to end and for me to put baby Mikey in his bed._

But then it's the faintest echo. The faintest sound. Nothing like I had ever heard. Its voice was so familiar. But it wasn't my own.

 _ **I had had a choice to make. It's as clear as day. Do as we say or your best friend gets it. I couldn't do entirely what they had said, or else he'd be terribly hurt. I did half of the job and hoped it would be enough. Apparently, it wasn't. Now my friend is hurt and it's all my fault.**_

* * *

 **Bum, bum, bum! Who is that voice, and what are they talking about? Stay tuned! Did you like it, love it, or hate it? Let me know! Your opinion matters! :)**


	4. Peer Pressure

" _There, Mikey, you're doing fine." I complimented. My one-year-old baby brother giggled as he approached me, falling once he took two steps. He giggled despite his small fall and clapped his hands._

 _I smiled back at him, licking the gap in my teeth that I had gotten that year when an adult tooth had fallen out. I crawled over to him and helped him to his feet. Once he was secure on his own feet, I crawled back over to my place where I had originally been sitting._

 _I opened and closed my hands. "C'mon, Mikey. I know you can walk to me."_

" _Ababa bo!" He cooed as he began to chew on his own hand._

 _I giggled. "C'mon, Mikey. Come to me. You can do it!"_

 _He looked at me for a brief moment before shoving his hand back into his mouth._

 _I looked to the plate behind me from dinner time. I had been determined to get my baby brother to walk to me. So much so that I took my dinner plate with me so I could eat and get my brother to walk._

 _I grab the slice of pizza that lies on my plate and take a bite. Mikey's eyes suddenly widen as he looks at the triangular food item in my hand. He opens and closes his hands to indicate that he wants the food item._

 _I looked at him and then looked at the pizza._

 _Light bulb._

" _You want the pizza, Mikey?" I asked him as I waved the pizza in front of him. I giggled lightly as his eyes followed the pizza in wonder, amusement, and sheer hunger._

 _Sure, Mikey didn't eat much 'older people' food, but he could eat small pieces of 'adult food'._

 _Slowly, Mikey began to take steps towards me, his eyes solely on the pizza. I smiled at the sight. "Come on, Mikey. You got it!" And he did. One step after the other, his chubby legs finally reached me and the pizza._

 _But just as he had, that's when he fell._

 _He fell sideways, and, to my horror, down towards the stairs. My small hand reached out to grab his hand, arm, sleeve, pant leg, anything that I could!_

 _But I was too late._

 _Much too late._

 _I could hear tiny, high pitched, screams as he bounced down each step. My maroon eyes had shrunk to the size of peas as they widened, my eyes filling with tears with each agonizing scream._

" _Daddy!" I had screamed._

 _But after I had screamed that simple word, I couldn't stop screaming. I screamed so hard that my voice only began to stop when my throat was raw enough to go out on its own. I could hear the front door open where he had been on the porch watching Leo, Raph, and mom play._

 _I could hear a loud gasp. My vision was hazy. I couldn't see, even with my glasses on. I could hear multiple voices in the room. Voices of worry, fear, sadness, anger, and calmness. They were all in the voices that surrounded me._

 _I think someone may have been yelling at me, but I barely noticed. Was that a hint of blood on the stairs? My eyes were still wide, my pupils still small, my eyes still filled with unshed tears, my mind still processing everything through slow motion._

 _Did I just kill my baby brother?_

"Donnie?"

I jump out of my thoughts and shake my head, finding my pencil lead still pressed against the paper, only no words were written on the delicate white sheet.

"Oh," I said sheepishly, a small blush creeping onto my face, "sorry. Where were we?"

"Finding the volume of _x,_ " Fang said, trailing off at the end of her sentence. She looked to me, her hazel eyes full of concern. "Hey, are you ok? You don't seem ok."

"Nah," I said, shaking my head, "I'm just fine. Just some memories of my family popped into my head s'all."

Her face suddenly fell and she shied away. "Oh, I, uh…I see," She looked to the paper on the table. "Well, uh…the volume isn't going to find itself." She said, nervousness written all over her voice.

My eyes glanced at her in wonder. "Hey, are you ok? You got silent all of a sudden."

"Yeah," She said, pushing a piece of blue hair back behind her ear, "I'm fine. Now, uh, the volume…"

"Ah, yes. Well, since density equals mass divided by volume to find the volume all we have to do is divide the density by the mass."

"Well, the mass equals 122 grams and the density equals 1,098, so 1,098 divided by 122 equals nine." Fang answered.

I smiled at her. "And there we have it."

She stood from her chair and placed her paper into her folder. "We're going to ace this science project."

"Yeah." I said, a small smile lit on my face.

She looked at me through her own black rimmed glasses. "So, uh, how's Lego Robotics?" She asked.

I looked back at her. "We have the necessary programs that we need. All we need is a great summary, which, unfortunately, none of us in the team are good writers."

Her eyes filled with a shimmer of hope. "Well, I, uh…I can write pretty decently. But I…I know how you feel about me, so uh…y'know what…j-just forget the offer. It was stupid anyways." She looked away as she slung her old, rundown backpack around her shoulder.

I quickly grabbed her by the wrist before she had the chance to move. "Wait," I said. She looked back at me in surprise. She waited, her eyes a bit fearful for anyone's guess. I smiled softly. "Maybe I overreacted a bit. You seem really nice. If you're still interested in joining the Robotics Team, we'd be glad to have you with us."

Her eyes brightened, her mouth smiled. "R-Really? You-You mean that?" She asked hopefully.

I nodded, a smile on my face as well. She jumped up and down in ecstasy, her blue hair bouncing along with her. "This is the best day of my life!" She gripped me in a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

And that's when I realized how skinny she was. As I hugged her back, my arms and hands could feel the outline of her bones. Each and every one of them. When I took a step back I had to suppress a gasp. _How had I not noticed before?_

She was so skinny that her ribs practically projected from her sides. "Fang?"

"Hm?" She asked as she stopped jumping.

"How many times a day do you eat?"

She looked down at her form. She looked back up and then looked away. "I eat three meals a day."

"Are you lying to me?"

"So what if I am?"

"I just want to know."

"Why do you care?"

"Because you're a human, and I want to know why I can see your bones." I answered with a dangerous tone.

She flinched. At what? I don't know. "It's none of your business."

"Are you starving yourself?"

"What? No!"

"Then what's up?"

"It's none of your business." She said with a snippy tone. She tried to walk out of the room, but I grabbed her by the wrist.

"Tell me."

"Let me go!" She told me, yanking her arm in my hand.

"Not until you tell me!"

"Let me go!"

"Tell me!" I yelled. I raised my other hand to grab her other arm, but I stop. Her eyes are wide. Her breath is quick.

"Don't hit me, please!" She yelled, tears building in her eyes.

I look at her in confusion before letting her wrist go. "I'd never think about hitting a girl," As soon as I let go of her wrist, she sinks to the floor and brings her knees to her chest. I look at her in confusion and sit next to her.

"Hey," I say. "what's wrong?"

"Don't hurt me, please." She pleads, hiding her face in her hands.

"Hey, hey, hey," I say as I pry her hands away from her face. I look into her hazel eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She takes a minute to process my words, tears glistening in her eyes. She dabbed at her eyes gently with her finger. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"Are you ok?" I ask as I take her hands into mine. "Did I, like, trigger a memory or something."

She hesitates, her mouth open but producing no sound before she shakes her head and stutters. "N-No. I'm fine. It was nothing."

I look into her eyes. "It doesn't seem like nothing."

"It's nothing."

OoOoOoO

"How is the old bonehead?" I asked as I plopped down on the couch beside Raph.

Raph sighed, his hand cradling his head. "The doctor said he'd be fine, but he was beat up pretty bad. His leg's all busted up and he's got a concussion."

"And how's Cody?" I asked, looking at Raph as he rubbed his hands together.

"He's still shaken up pretty bad. He's really upset. Last time I was at the hospital he told me that he wanted to kill whoever had done this to his big brother."

"That's a normal instinct," I say as I allow my hands to fall on top of my knees. "If someone were to do that sort of thing to you, I'd kill them for sure."

Raph paled and shook his head. "Nah, don't. I don't want that."

"Well, I'm sure Casey doesn't want Cody to do that either, but that's not gonna stop Cody."

"Yes," Raph sighed, "I know that."

I looked out the window that was on the left side of the couch. "Hey," I said, "remember the time when Mikey fell down the stairs?"

"Ugh," Raph groaned as he threw his head back against the couch. "Don't remind me. That was terrifying."

I nodded lightly. It had been. _I wonder if that's why he has dyslexia._

"Hey, didn't you talk a bit more to that Fang girl?"

I took in a deep breath that sounded more like a hiss. "It was hard. I tried to talk to her a bit, but she's not very open."

Raph also looked out the window. "I could've sworn that I had seen her digging out of the trash a few nights ago."

My face contorted into a look of shock and confusion. "Why would she be doing that?"

"Beats me," Raph shrugged before sending a serious look towards my way. "Maybe you should talk to her."

"I've already tried talking to her. She doesn't listen though. She doesn't allow me to say two words without freaking out." I protest.

Raph cocked an eyebrow. "Why would she freak out?"

"Beats me," I say with a shrug of my shoulders. "She's really weird though. I'm not too sure if I even like her."

"Hey, c'mon," Raph scolded me, "don't be like that. Things aren't exactly as they meet the eye."

"How would you know? It's not like you've talked to her at all." I protest.

Raph shakes his head. "Forget it," He tells me. "It was a stupid thought anyways. Do what you please." And with that he stands and walks away. I watch as his frame moves away from my vision.

I sigh.

 _Maybe something was up._

OoOoOoO

"C'mon, dude, why don't you want to come?" Spencer urged me on.

I rolled my eyes as I readjusted my backpack. "Knowing that Mark and Jack are the ones throwing the party there's bound to be beer and maybe even some drugs involved. And tell me again why _you_ want to go?"

"Because," He began as he walked alongside me, "everyone's invited. Including us. Don't you want a chance to fit in?"

"As tempting as 'fitting in' sounds, I'm not sure that I want to risk being pressurized into drinking alcoholic beverages. Do you realize the number of things that those types of drinks can do to growing boys like us? And though I trust myself to not getting pressurized into stuff like that, I don't want to risk it." I rant as we walk towards study hall.

He looks to me with pleading eyes. "C'mon, man! We're finally invited to a popular party, and you're just going to blow it off? Man, what is with you?"

"Man, what is with you?!" I shoot back. "Do you really want to chance getting drunk off your wits end and ruining the rest of your life?"

Spencer rolls his eyes and lets out a frustrated sigh. "You're impossible."

"I know." I said smugly.

He shook his head. "You're not right in the head."

I glare at him. "You're not right in the head! You know what beer can do to us! Why do you want to risk getting drunk?!"

Spencer shook his head. "Man, Donatello, you know me! I'm not going to do anything like that! C'mon, if you go I'll do your homework for all next month."

I sigh in frustration and look to him with angry eyes. "When is it? I need to make sure that that's not a day that I have to watch Mikey."

Spencer smiled widely. "This Saturday. I know you don't have to watch him, so don't try to get out of it."

I sigh and hold my head in my hand. "What am I getting myself into?"

OoOoOoO

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this." I say with a groan as we get out of Spencer's older brother's car.

"Well," Spencer said as he slammed the car door shut, "believe it. Because we're here and we're staying."

I sigh and shake my head. "I wonder if Raphael is here."

"He may be," Spencer said as we walked up the paved stones that lead to Mark's front door. "He never misses a party."

"Has he ever gotten drunk though? If so, I've never seen it." I ask.

Spencer shrugged. "How would I know? This is my first rodeo."

I sigh and shake my head as we near the front door. Spencer knocks on the door and we both wait. After a minute or so the door finally opened revealing a smiling Jack.

"Hey, guys," He said with his heavy Irish accent, "come on in. We're having so much fun."

I thank him before stepping in, and as soon as we do I gasp. There are so many kids with beers in their hands. There are so many boys flirting with girls and trying to do things that speak for themselves. And the girls were enjoying it.

My eyes widen in fear, reluctance, and regret. _I knew we shouldn't have come! Why couldn't Spencer just listen to me?_

"Looks like fun, huh, Donnie?" Spencer asks me as he nudges me with his elbow.

I look to him in shock as I push his elbow away from me. "No!" I tell him. "This does _not_ look like fun! This looks like a one-way ticket to jail! Are you kidding me? If Leo knew I was at a party like _this_ he'd tan my hide for sure!"

"Don," Spencer reminds me, "Leo's not your father. He can't lay a hand on you like that."

"Maybe not," I say as a drunk kid pushes past me in order to get to the snacks, "but he sure can ground me. Spencer, I've never seen this side of you. What is with you?"

Spencer sighed impatiently. "Man, this is the first time we've _ever_ been invited to any type of party, and you're just going to blow it off?"

"No," I say with an exasperated tone, "that's not what I'm getting at, and you know it. Spencer, I don't want to be pressurized into drinking. Why can you not respect that?"

He looks to me. This is the last time I see him all night and the last thing he says to me all night. "Because this is the first time, and probably the last time that we're ever invited to a party like this."

As he leaves my visual sight range, I sigh and plop down on and empty spot on the couch. _Why did I come,_ I ask myself? _I should have just stayed home with Mikey and Leo. Raph may be here, but I'm not like Raph. He's strong willed and knows how to get himself out of trouble. Now, me? I've never been in a situation like this._

"Hey, cutie," A female says as she nears me. I can smell the alcohol on her breath. Her bloodshot eyes are another dead giveaway. "Why don't we go somewhere a bit more comfortable?"

My cheeks flush with red, and I shake my head. "N-No thank you. I…I'm perfectly fine right here." I say as I back up further into the couch cushion.

She pouts and moves one of her brown pigtails out of her face. "C'mon, babe, just for a little while."

I shake my head, my eyes wide in fear never having been in this type of situation. "No. I'm not going anywhere with you." I tell her. She pouts with a glare before stumbling away. I sigh as I relax a bit.

 _I need to get out of here._ I stand up and run for the door, but Mark almost immediately stops me.

"Going already?" He asks me.

I nod. "I'm out of here!" I grab for the doorknob, but he pushes my hand away from the brass handle. He gives me a dangerous smile. One that tells me that he can do whatever he wishes with me if I don't do something he approves of.

"But you haven't tried any yet."

"Pardon?"

"You haven't tried any beer yet!" He insists. He grabs an unopened _Bud Light_ can off of the nearby snack table and cracks the tab open. I watch in fear as the sound of the packed up carbonation is let out. He places it in my hand. "Try some."

I look at the brownish-yellow liquid in fear before pushing the can back towards him. "N-No thank you. I don't want any. I just want to get back home."

He pushes it back towards me, that dangerous smile etched back onto his face. "Come on, I know you want some."

"Really, I don't."

"Oh, come on," He urges me on with the same wicked smile. "What's the worst that can happen?"

"Yeah," Another boy says as he places a hand on my shoulder, "it's not going to hurt you or anything."

I shake my head, fear building up in my body. "N-No! I don't want any!"

"What are you," Another boy yelled at me, "chicken?!"

"I am not!" I yell back.

"Then why won't you try it?" Mark asks me.

I look at them in desperation. "C'mon, guys. I don't want to do this. Why are you guys trying to get me to do this?"

They all smirk. "You're just a chicken. We all know it!"

"I am not a chicken!" I yell back, looking at the brownish-yellow alcoholic drink.

"Then do it!" Another kid tells me.

"Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it!" All of the kids chant as they circle around me.

My eyes are wide, my pupils are small, my hands are shaking, my head is hurting. _I shouldn't have come! If I didn't I wouldn't be in this position. I can't get out, and they're all chanting at me. You have to do something. What will it be?_

"Fine!" I yell. I tip the can back and the liquid dribbles down my throat. It has such a bitter taste, but I keep drinking. I can hear cheers in the background.

 _It's so gross! But if this is what makes them stop…_

I continue to chug the alcoholic drink until the can is all gone. I place the can down on the table and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. With my immune system, only a can was all it took.

Things started going in and out of focus and I felt much more loose. I felt so much more calm.

"Here," Jack said, handing me another can of the bitter soda, "have another one. We know you like it."

At this point, I couldn't argue. I could barely think. _Another one won't hurt, will it?_

And so down goes another one.

Oh, boy.

 **Looks like Donnie-Boy has got himself into some serious trouble. Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know. Your opinion matters. :)**


	5. Like Her Like Her

My eyes slowly began to open. I took in my surroundings to find myself in my bedroom. "Ugh…" I groan. My head is killing me! I look to the clock on my nightstand only to find the numbers all blurry. I reach a tired arm over to my nightstand and fumble my fingers for my glasses. I bring the glasses up to my face and look at the clock.

 _10:22am._

I groan. _How did I sleep in so late? And what did I do last night?_

I squint my eyes in pain as the light in the room penetrates through my eyes. I look over my bedside to find a bucket by it filled with puke. I wrinkle my nose in disgust before glancing towards Raphael's bed.

He was sitting there, an irritable look on his face. "Finally awake, sleeping beauty?" He asks in his gravelly voice.

"Ugh," I groan, squinting my eyes in Raph's direction, "Raph? What happened last night?"

"Oh?" He laughed bitterly. "You don't know?"

I shake my head, but I immediately regret it as my head begins to spin. "No, I don't."

"I'll tell you what happened."

" _I had been at the same party you had been at. I just don't know why you didn't tell me you were going. If you had told me I could have helped you. Anyways, while I was there I had been out in the backyard._

' _Hey, man,' my friend Kyle had told me, 'isn't that your twin in there?'_

 _I had been alarmed at what he had said. I knew you were better than these types of parties. 'What are you talking about,' I had asked. 'He doesn't come to parties like this.'_

' _Well, he's here,' Kyle told me, 'and he's wasted.'_

' _What?!' I had yelled in shock. That's all Kyle had needed to say before I darted off inside to find you. You weren't that hard to find. You were practically passed out on the floor._

 _I had run over to you 'What the hell did you guys do to my brother?!' I yelled at them. They all just sniggered._

' _C'mon, Raph, we were just having a little fun with him. We didn't think he'd actually do it.'_

' _Bull honkey!' I had yelled at them all before supporting you up. I practically had to drag you all the way home."_

I looked to Raph in shock before cradling my head in my hand. "Gosh, dang it. I knew I shouldn't have gone."

"Yeah, about that," Raph said as he sat next to me on my bed, "why did you go? You know better than to go there. You fall too easy under pressure."

I sigh before rubbing my hands together. "Spencer, that's why."

"Pardon?"

"He kept asking and asking and asking. So to get him off of my back I said yes. I didn't think I'd fall under pressure."

"Well," Raph said with a snort, "you did."

"And I'm paying for it now." I groan.

"I bet," Raph said in slight anger. "You didn't have to fall under the pressure, you know. You could have just left."

"I tried!" I shot back, but immediately cradled my head in my hand once more. "I tried, but they surrounded me and wouldn't allow me to get to the door. They kept telling me to do it, so I caved in."

"I don't think that's much of an excuse." Raph told me.

I sighed. "I know it's not, but it's _my_ excuse. And I'm already expecting punishment."

"Oh, yeah," Raph said with a nod of his head, "big time. Leo was ticked when he saw you like that last night. Especially since I had to tell him that you were drunk. So…yeah…I'd say he's pretty mad."

I groaned lightly as I plopped my head gently against the pillow. "I don't know how much worse this can get."

"Oh, I think you're about to find out."

"What do you…" I immediately stopped and threw a hand over my mouth before taking the bucket into my hand and retching into it.

Raph smirked. "That's what I meant."

As I continued to empty the contents of my stomach, Raph snatched my glasses off of my face so that they wouldn't fall into the bucket. I smile up at him in thankfulness before I feel my stomach lurch once more and I direct my mouth back towards the bucket.

Raph patted my back. "Congrats on getting your first hangover." He said sarcastically.

OoOoOoO

"With your intelligence, Donatello, I expect more from you!" My eldest brother yelled at me. I flinched lightly. He was extremely stressed from having to take the responsibility of a parent, so the pent up stress was more than likely going to go towards me in this instant. "Honestly, what were you thinking?!"

I look up at him with sorry eyes. "I'm sorry, Leo. I haven't a good excuse. There is no excuse as to what I have done."

"You've got that right," He scolds. "As for your punishment," the words sounded so terrible coming from my eldest brother's mouth, "you're grounded for five months. You're completely confined to your room. When you get home from school you go to your room. That's where you're going to stay for the next five months."

I look at him calmly. _You deserve this,_ I remind myself. But then my face contorts into one of hopefulness. "But I have a Robotics competition next week. Can I at least go to that?"

"No, Donatello. You cannot." Leo scolds. My breath hitches. _Because of my stupid mistake my team is going to have to pay for it._

"Please, Leo. Our team is really small. If I go out the team won't be able to compete."

"Donatello," He says in a low voice, "I said no."

"Leo, I can't let them down. Ground me for a year, just don't let them miss the competition because of my mistake." I try again.

"I said no, Donatello."

"But, Leo-"

"I said no!" Leo yells as his hand collides with my mouth. I stumble backwards from the blow and even trip over one of Mikey's toys that are on the floor.

I place a finger against the bracket of my braces and bring it back down. There's blood. I looked back up at him, my breathing heavy, my eyes wide. His eyes were stone cold. If he were Medusa, I'd be stone.

I stand slowly and back away from him. "Sorry." I whisper as I turn and run up the stairs. I run into the bathroom and look in the mirror, shutting the door behind me.

Blood practically soaked my braces, my once purple bands now a dark crimson color. I sigh as I rinse the coppery liquid out of my mouth. I spit the disgusting mixture of blood and water out into the sink and watch as it stains against the white sink.

I look back up into the mirror and curse quietly. Tears had penetrated their way into my eyes. I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand.

 _Stop crying, Donatello. What are you, a baby?_

I take in a deep breath, the oxygen stinging against my cut up gums. I walk to the door and open it, running down the hallway towards my room. When I open the door I see Raph sitting on his bed looking through a _Harley Davidson_ magazine.

He looked up at me and immediately went into big brother mode. "Did he take it that hard on you?"

"It's not the punishment." I tell him as I plop down onto my bed, covering my face with my hands.

"Then what is it?" Raph inquires. I don't answer. I didn't trust myself to talk. I wasn't even sure if what had happened, happened. I hear Raph move off of his bed and he sits next to me on mine. "Hey," He says, "what's wrong?"

I uncover my face and open my mouth. I hear him gasp. "Don," He says as he inspects my mouth. My gums hadn't really stopped bleeding, the coppery liquid once again returning, "what happened?"

"Leo," I say, "that's what happened."

Raph's face contorted into one of shock. "He…hit you?"

I sigh and nod, relaxing as I allow my head to sink into my pillow. "Yeah," I say, "he did."

Raph growled as he stood on his feet, walking towards the door. "He can't hit you. That's not what brothers do to each other."

"Raph, wait!" I cry as I jump up from my bed and grip his wrist in my hand. "It was only one time. Don't worry about it. He's so stressed, Raph. He can't help it."

"Just cause he's stressed," Raph argued, trying to pull his wrist away from my hand, "doesn't give him the right to hit you. And he sure can help it. He's seventeen. I think he can control his actions."

"Raph," I protest desperately, gripping his wrist even tighter, "he's being forced to grow up to fast. Just…let it go."

"What if he hits Mikey?"

"He wouldn't do that, Raph."

"What if he does?"

"Raph!" I exclaim. "He would not take it that far! It was an accident! Just let it go!"

Raph sighs, kicking his backpack with his left foot. Another opposite that we had inherited. While I was the common right hander, Raph was the rare left hander. "Fine. But if this happens again-"

"It won't," I assure him. "It was an accident, and even if it wasn't he probably didn't mean to make me bleed."

"It better have been an accident or I'll-"

"You'll do nothing, Raph."

He just grumbles and moves back towards the door, waiting for me to do the same. "You coming?"

I shake my head. "Can't," I reply, "I'm confined to my room for the next five months."

Raph's eyes widened. "But what about your competitions?"

I sighed. "Don't get me started on that. That's why I got hit. Because I pressed the matter too far. Because of me, my team isn't going to get to go to that competition. You have to have at least five kids on the team, and-without me-the team only has four. What am I going to do?"

Raph looked thoughtful for a moment. "What about that Fang girl? If you can get her on your team, the team can go to the competition."

My face brightens and I smile in Raph's direction. "You're right! I completely forgot about her! I already offered her to be part of the team! The team can go to the competition!" I say in ecstasy.

OoOoOoO

I hear a faint knock on my door. One that's faint enough to belong to Mikey. I look to the clock sitting on my nightstand.

 _9:56pm._

I furrow my brow in confusion. _It's Sunday and Mikey has school tomorrow. He should be in bed at this time._

"Come in." I call from my sitting place on my bed.

I am not ready for who comes in.

In comes Leo, his eyes holding an apologetic look. I look at him in shock before sinking back down on my bed and continuing the plan for the competition. _I'll have Cody scan over it and see what he says._

"Hey, Don, can I talk to you?"

"There's no booze in here if you're wondering," I tell him, not looking up from the piece of paper. "I may have gotten drunk, but it was the worst tasting thing ever."

"Yeah," Leo says as he leans back against the wall, "why did you do that anyways? It just seems so unlike you."

"Peer pressure," I tell him. "It got the best of me. I tried to fight it off, but I was literally cornered. They kept chanting 'do it, do it, do it' until I finally did it," I shake my head at the terrible memory. "It was terrible."

Leo sighed. "Don, I'm sorry that happened to you, but why didn't you tell me that there was going to be alcohol? If I would have known, Raph wouldn't be leaving your side. When you said you were going to a party, I assumed that it was one of those parties you and your team make."

"Spencer wouldn't leave me alone about it," I tell him, sketching my pencil across the paper in my note pad. "He was literally begging me to go."

Leo sighed. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, but I still can't let it slide."

"And I don't expect you to."

Leo shook his head and walked closer to me. "My punishment still stands. But I really am sorry for hitting you."

My pencil freezes. Leo could sense the pencil's movement stop so abruptly. The tension grew. The tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife.

"Donnie?"

I gripped my pencil so tightly that it snapped in half in my hand.

"Donnie?"

I shake my head, finally snapping out of the trance like state I had fallen in.

"Donnie, I really am sorry. I don't know what had come over me. Can you forgive me, bro?"

I look to him, my finger unconsciously reaching up towards my mouth. "I know you're stressed and that you have a lot on your plate, but it still hurt."

"I know," Leo said, his face contorted into unimaginable guilt, "and I'm terribly sorry."

I sighed, closing my eyes gently. "I forgive you, Leo."

"Can I see?"

"What?"

"Can I see your mouth?"

I nod lightly before opening my mouth wide. He came over and looked inside, my irritated gums protesting the easy action. Leo's eyes teared up.

"I'm so sorry, Donnie."

I sigh and wrap my arms around his waist. "It's ok, Leo. I'm fine. Everything's fine. I'm not mad."

"I hurt you. I made you bleed. I hit my own little brother. I'm so sorry, Donnie."

"Leo, listen to me," I tell him. "I'm not mad. It's ok. You're just stressed."

"That's not an excuse to hit you!" Leo cried.

I sighed as I leaned my head into his chest. "No, it's not, but I know you'd never intentionally hurt me."

He sobbed a bit harder. "I…I'm so sorry."

OoOoOoO

I moaned lightly, shivering violently under my blankets. My stomach flopped, and I knew what was coming. I move my blankets and kick my feet over. I try to stand on my feet, but I immediately fall to my knees, releasing the contents of stomach on the floor.

"Donnie?" I hear someone ask. The next thing I know is that the lights are turned on. I hear feet running towards me and someone's knees come into my view. _They must have slid on their knees._ "Donnie, what's wrong?!"

I cough as I continue to vomit on the floor. "Stomach…c-c-cold…hurts…"

I cough harshly as the vomiting slowly begins to stop. I look to the person who is sitting next to me to find it to be Raph. He lies me back gently. "Leo! Hurry!"

"C-C-C-C-Cold." I shiver in Raph's grip. Raph brings a blanket down from my bed and covers me with it. The door slams open and more pitter patter of feet is heard.

"What's wrong?"

"He's sick again."

Leo places his hand on my forehead. "He's burning up pretty bad."

"What do we do?"

"Let's wait and see if it passes. Give it a day. If he's not better, I'll take him to the doctor."

"Leo," Raph says, worry evident in his voice, "the doctors are missing something. I don't care what they say, all I know is that this is not the cause of a weak immune system."

"I'm starting to believe you, Raph. But what can we do?"

I'm a shivering mess as I lean against my older twin. I try to press further into his chest, but it's not possible. "C-C-Cold." I shiver.

Leo places his hand against my forehead one more time before sighing. "I'm going to get the thermometer. From what I can tell, his fever is really high." I felt Leo's hand leave my forehead and I heard as his feet plodded away from the room.

"R-R-Raph?" I stutter.

His grip slightly tightens. "Yeah, Donnie?"

I shiver violently in his grip despite it tightening. "I…I don't f-f-f-feel…w-w-well."

Raph places his chin on top of my head. "I know, Don. Just hang in there. You'll feel better soon. Hopefully." He whispered the last part, thinking I wouldn't hear it, but I had.

"Donnie? Raphie? Raphie, what's wrong with Donnie?" I heard Mikey ask as he ran over to us.

"I don't know, Mikey. He's sick." Raph answered. I felt someone move my arms up. Something slipped in between my arms, and I looked down. I smiled. There was Mikey squeezed into my arms.

Mikey reached a thumb up to my forehead and wiped a bead of sweat off of my forehead. "Can I help you feel better? Tell me what to do."

I smiled as I weakly hugged Mikey to my chest. "Just stay here with me."

"Alright," Leo said as he neared me with the thermometer in his hand, "I need you to open your mouth."

I obediently open my mouth and allow the thermometer to go under my tongue. Mikey places his small hand on my forehead. "You're warm." He tells me.

"Mmhm." I mumble weakly in agreement.

 _Beep beep._

Mikey takes the thermometer out of my mouth and reads it himself. Or he at least tries. "One…zero…three…period…four?" He tries as he gives the thermometer to Leo.

Leo's eyes widen. "103.4? Dang, Donnie, you've sure got a fever there."

"What do we do?" Raph asks as he wipes a bead of sweat off of my forehead. "A fever that high is pretty dangerous."

Leo sighed. "Let's just see how he is in the morning. If he's gotten worse, I'll take him to the doctor. If there's not much of a change, I'll just keep him home. I can watch him."

"No, Leo, I can watch him. After school you have to go to work. I can watch him for you." Raph offers.

Leo shakes his head. "No, Raph. You're going to school tomorrow, and I'm staying here and watching Donnie. Plus, if something were to go wrong, I'd like to be home if it does."

Raph sighed gently as he hugged my head to his chest, Mikey still lying in my lap, his head buried in my chest. I suddenly push them both away, much to their confusion. I try to stand, but my legs are too feeble, and I sink to my knees once more. Once again I empty the contents of my stomach out onto the floor.

Raph rubs circles in my back shushing me quietly as the vomiting slowly subsides.

OoOoOoO

"Do I have to go to school today?" I heard Mikey whine out in the hallway.

"Yes, Mikey, you do." Leo told him. I can't help but smile. Mikey always got this way when one of us was sick. He would try to refuse any and all departure from the house until the ill stricken family member was better.

He had done that even when Mom and Dad had been sick. Even though Mikey had always been a very docile child, the kid proved not to be very pragmatic when it came to leaving the house when a family member was sick.

"But Donnie's sick!" Mikey whined, dragging the 'I' in sick out further than it should be.

I couldn't help but chuckle lightly only to regret it when a massive migraine passed through my head.

"Mikey, I know he's sick, but you know what you can do for him?"

"What?"

Their voices turned hushed, and I can't help but be curious. _What are they planning?_

"Thank you, Leo!" Mikey cried as his feet bounded down the stairs.

OoOoOoO

I panted as the wet cloth lied across my forehead. I had been better in the morning, but as the hours had slowly progressed I had managed to get a bit worse.

"L-Leo." I whined. He stroked my dirty-blonde hair gently.

"Sh, I know Donnie. Here," He said as he got the thermometer from the nightstand, "open your mouth so I can take your temperature."

I open my mouth but almost immediately close it from pain from the small action. Leo's eyes soften in sympathy and worry. He strokes my arms soothingly. "I know it hurts, bud, but you have to open up so I can take your temperature."

I close my eyes tightly as I open widely, allowing the thermometer to enter my mouth. I close it and look to Leo with pain filled eyes. He looks to me with sympathetic eyes and a sad smile.

"I think we're going to have to go back to the doctor aren't we?" He asks me as we wait for the thermometer to beep.

I feel tears pile in my eyes. "I don't want to go back." I choke out.

"I know you don't," Leo tells me as he strokes my cheek gently, "but I don't think we have a choice. You're really sick, Don."

"Why?" I ask with tearful eyes.

Leo sniffed lightly as he stroked my arm. "I don't know, buddy. I just don't know."

 _Beep beep._

Leo took the thermometer out of my mouth and looked at it. His eyes widened, but he forced his voice to remain calm. "Alright, buddy," He told me, "we need to go to the hospital."

"Why?" I ask as I allow a single tear to fall from my eye.

He picked me up in his arms bridal-style. "Because your fever's way too high?"

"How high?" I ask as he carries me down stairs and out to the car.

"106.4 high." He tells me as he dumps me off into the passenger side of the car.

I whimper slightly.

He looks at me sympathetically as he gets into the driver's side and buckles up.

OoOoOoO

"Again, man, that's the fifth time in the past four months." Cody tells me.

"I know." I grumble as I look at the hospital bracelet that the doctor had told me to keep on for the next few days in case something went wrong.

"Let me guess," Cody said wearily, "because of your immune system?"

"That's what they said, again," I grumble. "Oh, well, maybe I'll never know. It's so stupid. I hate going to that hospital every few weeks when I get sick."

"When you get sick, though," Cody reminds me, "it gets pretty bad."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumble, "don't remind me."

"Owowow!" I hear Tristen whistle. I look up along with everyone and my eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets.

Fang looked around the room in confusion. "I was accepted into the team wasn't I?" She asks. She's wearing a purple tank-top along with black shorts and purple flip-flops.

I nod. "Yeah," I say feeling as if I'm in a trance, "yeah, we accepted you."

"Then why are you all staring at me like that?" She asks suspiciously.

I shake my head and smack Tristen and Damian in the back of their heads. "No reason. We're sorry if we made you uncomfortable." I tell her.

She shakes her head, a smile on her face. "Nah, you didn't. So, uh…" She said as she looked around the room, "what do I do?"

"Right," I say as I walk up to her, "we just need you to write a summary of the project."

"Well, what's the project?"

"Well, this year," I explain, "the theme was trash pick-up. Make a summary about why we should recycle."

She nods, a smile still on her face. "I'm on it!" She walks towards the computer on the opposite side of the room and I can't help but stare at her.

"Donnie, are you ok?" Cody asks as he waves a hand in front of my face.

"I think I'm crushing…"

"You're what?"

"I think I like Fang." I say in a trance.

Cody looks at me in shock. "Like, like her like her?" He asks me.

I nod. "Yeah," I say, "I like her like her."

 **Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know. Your opinion matters. :)**


	6. Come Clean

I looked out the window of my room to find Mikey sitting on the steps of our porch. I sigh gently. _Raph's supposed to be watching him, and it's raining outside._

I stood up and walked to my door and turned the knob. Yes, I was breaking the rules of my punishment, technically, but Mikey couldn't sit outside in the rain like the way he was. _Hopefully Leo will understand._

I walk down the stairs getting dumped off into the living room. I walk to the front door and turn the doorknob and exit to the outside quietly. So quietly that Mikey doesn't hear me.

He isn't crying, but he isn't laughing. I can barely see the side of his face. He isn't smiling. I look at him with sad eyes. "Hey." I say.

His head looks back at me. His eyes are dull; his lips aren't twitched up into a smile either. Without a word, he turns his head back towards the rain. I sigh gently before walking over to him and sitting next to him.

"What's wrong, bud?" I ask gently, looking at his oversized orange hoodie. The hoodie reached to his knees.

He kept watching as the rain as it bounced off of the pavement and slid down into the grass. The clouds were so dark it almost looked like it was nighttime. And it was only 3:22pm.

"Why are kids so mean?" He suddenly asked.

I sighed gently as I looked out at the rain with him, my fists stuffed into the pockets of my purple hoodie. "I don't know, Michelangelo. Why is Raph such a hothead?"

Mikey stayed silent despite my attempt at a joke. I sighed. "Some kids are just mean like that, Mikey. There's no explanation as to why they're so mean, they just are."

Mikey took in a deep breath, his baby blue eyes closing. "It doesn't make me feel good."

I sighed gently, wrapping my arm around Mikey's shoulders. "It never does. They don't want us to feel good."

"But why?" Mikey asked as he leaned into my side. I sigh as I rub my hand against his arm.

"We'll never know, Mike. Some kids do it because their life isn't easy. Some kids do it to make themselves look cooler."

"But it isn't cool." Mikey said as he nuzzled his head against my ribcage.

I sighed as I stroked his hair. "I know it isn't, Mike. But other kids don't know that. No one knows that until they go through it. And I'm sorry to say that you're going through it at a very young age."

Mikey curled up into my side, his legs going into his chest. "Do people do this to you, Donnie?"

It wasn't the kind of question I had been expecting. Needless to say, I choked a bit on the air that was going into my lungs. When I was calmed down I gave him my answer. "Yeah, people do it to me. Almost everyone goes through it, Mikey. I promise that you're not the only one."

Mikey nodded against my ribcage and I smiled gently before a clap of thunder interrupted my thoughts. I gently pick Mikey up in my arms before entering the house. "Mikey," I ask, "do you know where Raph is?"

"No," Mikey says as he lies his head against my chest. "I haven't seen him in a while."

I groan lightly, looking back out the window. I gently place Mikey on the couch. "Stay here, Mikey. I need to find Raph." I tell him as I run up the stairs. _Maybe he's in the bathroom._

When I reach the top of the stairs, the bathroom is indeed shut. I knock loudly. "Raph!" I call. "Raph, are you in there?" No answer.

I groan as I open the door. No one's in there. I feel a bit of fear overcome me. I take in a deep breath. _Calm down, Donatello. Maybe he went to our room._

I run to our shared room and open the door. "Raph, are you in here?" I asked. Once again, no reply. I cursed under my breath. I searched Leo's room. No. Our parents' room. Nope. The kitchen. Nada. The garage, the hallway with all the pictures, the shed, even, but no matter where I looked, he was nowhere to be seen!

I grabbed my cellphone, a device that I was forbidden from. But this was an emergency. I first called Raphael, hoping he would answer.

He didn't.

 _You called Raphael. Obviously, I'm busy, so leave a message, and I'll get to you when I can. Bai!_

I groaned as I heard a gentle _beep._ "Hey, Raph, it's Donnie. Where are you? Call back when you get the chance."

With that I hung up the call only to call back once again. The same thing happened. I groaned. "To hell with it." I find Leo's contact and press it and listen to the ringer.

"Donnie? You're not supposed to have your phone." Leo growled.

I groan. "No time to explain, Leo. I can't find Raph; he's not here!" I say panicked.

Soon, Leo's voice is etched with the same worry that mine had possessed. "What do you mean he's not there?!"

"I mean," I clarify, "he's not home! He was here earlier, but he must have left while I was in my room."

There were panicked voices on the other side of the receiver. They were so muffled that I couldn't decipher the voices. "Ok, Donnie, stay calm, but you and Mikey need to get into the basement. There's a tornado warning."

"And Raph's missing?!" I shouted in fear.

"Donnie," Leo yelled, "calm down! Right now you need to worry about you and Mikey getting to the basement."

I nodded even though Leo couldn't see me. "Ok, I'm on it." I told him as I was about to hang up.

"And Donnie!" Leo said.

"What?" I asked as I bounded down the stairs.

He sighed. "I love you. Tell Mikey I love him as well."

I smile slightly. "I'll tell him. Gotta go!" And with that I hang up. I scoop Mikey up into my arms and run to the basement.

"Where are we going?" Mikey asks as I run down the stairs.

"We're going to the basement, buddy."

"Why?"

"Because I said."

"Why?"

"Mikey." I warned gently, not wanting to play games like these. I placed him gently against the cement floors of the basement before reaching my arm towards the ceiling and pulling the chain of the single incandescent lightbulb to turn on the light.

"Get underneath the table, Mike."

"Why, Donnie?" He asked, his eyes wide with fear.

I sigh gently as I scoop him up into my arms and sit underneath the table, holding him in my arms. He looks into my maroon eyes with his ice cold, baby blue eyes. "Is Raph going to be ok?"

I suck in a deep breath. _Hopefully,_ I think. "Yeah, he'll be fine." I say. Loud sounds penetrate through the atmosphere. The sounds sound like a freight train that had derailed, and the wheels were scraping against hard cement.

Mikey looks up at me with fear-filled eyes. "Donnie?!" He asks me in a loud, fearful scream.

I hug his head into my chest, protecting his head in case the worse came to play. "Leo said he loves you." I told him trying to calm him down.

That didn't work.

"Donnie, what's that sound?!" He asked in a scream.

"Don't worry about that," I told him, "just answer the questions I'm going to ask. What's your favorite color?" _Good, this will keep him occupied._

Mikey closed his eyes tightly, tears peeking out from underneath his eyelids. "O-Orange!"

"How old are you?" I ask, still protecting his head in my chest.

He shook underneath my grip. "Ei-Eight."

And just as fast as the sound had come, it went away. As the sound left our hearing range, Mikey slowly lifted his head, revealing tear streaks against his face. "I…Is it gone?" He asked me.

I loosen my grip on him gently and nod my head gently. "Yeah," I say as I look around the barely touched room, "it's gone."

Mikey pries himself from my grip-not that I was holding him tightly-and stood on the ground. I came out from underneath the table myself and looked around the room as well.

The room hadn't been touched at all.

I make my way up the stairs, Mikey trailing behind me. I open the door that lead to the living room of our house, fearing the worst.

I gasp.

The house is perfectly fine.

OoOoOoO

"Thank gosh you two are alright!" Leo said as he hugged Mikey and I tightly.

"We're just fine." I reassure him as Mikey nuzzles his head deeper into Leo's chest.

Leo sighs gently as he pulls away from the hug and scoops Mikey up into his arms. "I'm just so glad that you both are ok."

Mikey happily wraps his arms around Leo's neck, burying his face into the crook of Leo's next. I look into Leo's blue eyes, hopefulness embedded into my own maroon orbs. "Any word on Raphael?"

Leo sighed as he rubbed Mikey's back gently. "No," he said sadly, "I haven't." He walked out to the kitchen and looked at the digital clock that sat on the counter.

 _6:34pm._

"Do you have any idea where he could be, Donatello?" Leo asked me.

"No, I…" _Wait,_ I think. _Maybe…but he hasn't spoken to them in…those guys are dangerous. Perhaps…are they the ones that…_

I run to the garage in search of my bike. As soon as I spot it I run to it and kick up the kickstand. "Wait," Leo calls after me as I make my way down the driveway, "where are you going?!"

I look over my shoulder briefly. "To the spot where Raph may be! But I'm hoping I'm wrong!" I yell as I pedal as hard as I can.

I can hear Leo yelling in the background, but I ignore him. Raph could be doing something extremely stupid, and I had to stop him.

I turn my bike sharply, heading down towards Nathan and his gang's hideout.

 _Last time he hung out with those guys, he nearly got beat up on his own. What will they do now? Did they do that to Casey?_

When my bike turns, I drag my foot across the pavement to prevent from toppling over. _He's a lunatic,_ I think as I begin to pedal harder and faster. I keep my eye on the lookout for the brick alleyway with a purple dragon spray painted onto the wall.

 _My twin's so stupid. He doesn't know that he's going to get himself killed. We're only in eight grade for gosh sake's and he's getting into fights with kids in tenth grade. Multiple kids at that._

"I did part of the job! You didn't have to beat Casey up!" I heard the sound of my twin's gruff voice. I pedal harder.

"True," I hear Nathan's voice, "you did do part of the job, but you didn't do _all_ of the job."

"I can't hurt him!" Raph objects. "Why do you want to hurt the one's I care about?! What did they ever do to you?!" _What are they going to do?_ I heard a loud echoing sound of metal hitting brick and I winced, speeding up a bit more.

"It's not about what they did," Nathan's voice was deep, quiet, and dangerous. "It's what _you_ did."

"Well," Came Raphael's impatient voice, "what did _I_ do?"

Nathan chuckled dangerously. "Don't you know?" I was so caught up in listening to the conversation that I didn't notice the giant pot hole in front of me. My tire bumped the pot hole causing me to lose control of my bike. When the tire tried to go up the other side of the pot hole, it got stuck and sent me flying across the air, tumbling when my body reached the pavement.

I groaned as my body flopped down in front of the hideout, showing not just Nathan, but…

 _2…_

 _4…_

 _6…_

 _8…_

 _10…_

 _12…_

 _14…_

fourteen other kids in the Purple Dragon's gang.

"Donnie?" Raph asks with a bit of an edge. I look over at him and wave nervously.

Raph groans as the Purple Dragons smile maliciously my way. My expression is one of nervousness as I slowly back away, crawling on my hands and scooting on my behind. With each move I take backwards, the PD's take a step forward.

"Leave him alone!" Raph yells. Everyone turns to him, a look of shock on their faces. "This between me and you bozos! This doesn't concern my brothers or my friends or anyone else at that! If you wanna fight someone, you will fight me, not my brothers, and not my friends! Me!"

I get to my feet and look to the PD's and then back to Raph. "Raph," I ask, panting heavily, "what are you talking about. What's between you and them?"

Raph looked to his feet that were planted on the cement ground. He didn't utter one sound or word. "You mean he didn't tell you?" Nate asks me.

I look to Nate in confusion all the while Raph death glared at Raph. "What didn't he tell me?"

Raph growled under his breath, his eyes still directed to the cement. I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "What didn't you-"

"He trashed your locker." Nate told me quickly.

My eyes widened. "You?" I asked with venom. "You trashed my locker? So that means you're also the one who tore up my textbooks and ruined my projects. You?!" I screeched, my voice high and scratchy.

Raph didn't look at me. He didn't speak. He didn't sigh. He didn't groan. He was motionless.

"How could you do such a thing?!" I asked in a yell.

Still he said nothing. _Why isn't he saying anything to me?_ I growled under my breath. "You're coming home with me _now,_ and if you object I _will_ call Leo, and we both know that he doesn't take no for an answer!"

Raph looked back at the Purple Dragons, and Nate nodded before whispering something in his ear. I look in curiosity, but my anger still bubbles underneath my core. Slowly, Raph makes his way up to me, my glare still hard and cold.

I pick up my bike that's still lying in the pothole, and I hop onto it. I look back at Raph briefly. "You can explain to Leo where we were and why." I tell him, my voice dangerously low, before I take off, glancing back every so often to make sure that Raph is following behind me.

OoOoOoO

As we enter the garage, I throw my bike down onto the concrete floor with a huff, and I stomp inside the house.

"Now, Donnie, look, I-"

"I don't want to hear it Raphael!" I say sternly as I begin to stomp up the stairs of our home. Childish? Maybe, but he destroyed a lot of my work. Important work at that.

"Donnie, ya gotta listen-"

I whirl around to glare at my twin who stayed at the bottom of the stairs, one foot on the first step. "I," I say, " _don't_ have to listen to you! Why should I?! The one guy who is supposed to _have_ my back goes and _stabs_ me in the back! Am I supposed to just let that go?! All of that work that you destroyed that _I_ was punished for?! I'm not doing it Raphael!"

"Look," Raph tries to tell me, "I'm sorry, but let me explain-"

"Why should I?!" I ask, fire blazing in my maroon eyes. "You completely destroyed work that I had to work on for weeks! Why should I let you explain?!"

Raph sighed. I guess he was done fighting, knowing I wasn't going to let him explain anything. "I'm sorry, Don."

"Sorry doesn't cut it. Not this time, Raphael." I growl, a scowl on my face. I run into our room, and I gather up his blanket and pillow before running back to the top of the stairs and throwing them down.

I didn't stick around to see his reaction, but I pictured it to be one of shock. "Yer kickin' me outta our room?" He asked in disbelief. I slammed our door in response.

I crossed my arms over my chest before marching over to my bed and sitting on it. I could feel angry tears seeping into my eyes, but I ignored them.

 _That no good, low life-_

"Donnie?" A small voice came from my door. I look to my door to see teared up, baby blue eyes. His cheeks were wet and his blonde hair was matted. He looked as if he had been crying hard.

"Mike?" I ask in concern as I walk over to him, kneeling in front of him. "Mikey, what's wrong?"

He sniffed lightly, rubbing his right fist against his right eye. "You and Raph were fighting." He said in a high pitched, whiny voice.

I frown and open my arms, allowing him to snuggle into my chest. "Hey," I tell him as he begins to cry once more, "don't cry. Everything's alright."

"Are you and Raphie going to get a divorce?"

The question was so small and so innocent that I couldn't help but slightly chuckle. Since he was eight-years-old, and had happily married parents, he hadn't had the grasp on the concept of divorce. He didn't understand that two people had to be married to get a divorce, and Raph and I, were not married, and never were going to be married since we're brothers, and not attracted to men.

But I didn't bore him with those facts. Instead, I shook my head. "No, Mikey, Raph and I aren't getting a divorce. We just had an argument. Raph did something that made me upset, so I yelled at him. But just because we mess up and get mad at each other doesn't mean we don't love each other. We just don't always see eye to eye."

Mikey sniffed gently as he nodded against my shoulder. "Ok, Donnie." He said as he continued to sniff. I kissed his head softly while rubbing his back.

"Everything's ok." I said.

OoOoOoO

The walk to school today was different than normal ones. On a normal day, Raph, Mikey, Leo, and I all walked to school together. Today, however, Leo walked with Raph while I walked with Mikey, considering that Raph and I still aren't on good terms.

I smiled fondly as I watched Mikey continuously try to keep his balance on the curb as he quoted his alphabet. "You're doing good, Mikey."

He smiled at me as he continued to keep his balance, his arms stretched out on his sides. "Thanks, Donnie!" He said as he looked back down to the curb and began to once again recite the alphabet.

"Hey, Donatello!" I hear a familiar voice call out.

A feminine one.

My cheeks immediately begin to heat up as I notice Fang trying her best to sprint down the sidewalk to meet up with Mikey and I.

"Hey, Fang." I call out weakly, my feelings towards her making me vulnerable at this point.

Once she reached me, she seemed out of breath. _Probably because she hasn't eaten much,_ I think as I look at her ribs. _Why is she so skinny?_

She handed me a paper that was folded up to look like a pamphlet. "I finished the summary and stuff at the library yesterday. Y'know, before the whole tornado thing."

"Yeah," I breathed out as I began to read her summary. She had the details and facts down to smallest grammar mistake. "This is really good, Fang."

She smiled at me. "Thanks," She said as she began to pull her blue hair up into a ponytail. "So did your house get spared by the tornado yesterday?"

"Yeah," I tell her as I adjust my backpack, "it went right past our house, but everything seems fine. What about your house?"

She paled as she slightly became slower. "Yeah," She said quietly, "everything was spared."

I look at her in worry and shock before waving a hand in front of her face. "Uh, Fang," I ask, "are you ok?"

"Huh?" She asks as she gives a little jump as she came out of her trance like state. She looks to me then looks to Mikey before plastering a smile back onto her face. "Oh, yeah," She said, though it seemed forced. "I'm fine."

I looked to her arms, legs, wrists, and ankles. They were all cut up. She was bruised up too. _From the tornado,_ I wonder? "What are all of those wounds from?" I ask.

She looks down to her wrists and ankles. "Oh," She says, almost surprised, "these? Um…I'm not quite sure."

I looked at her skeptically. That is until I heard a new voice.

"Fang!" I heard a manly voice yell. It was deep and burly. Kind of like Raph's Batman voice, just to a lighter degree. "Get back here!"

She whirled around, hazel eyes wide with fear. She nodded once. "Yes, Father." She said, almost robotically.

He grabbed her wrist, right on one of her wounds and twists her arm, her eyes immediately widening in pain. "You didn't clean up after last night!" He bellowed.

She began to tear up, her eyes still wide. "I'm sorry, Father," She said quietly. "I must have forgot." That look in her eyes told me that that was a lie. She didn't forget. Something must have happened.

I put Mikey behind me, his own eyes wide with fear. "That's going to cost you more to clean up! You're not going to school today!" And that's when she began to struggle against her father's grip.

"No, please!" She yelled, trying to rip her arm away from her father's grip. "Please don't hurt me again!"

That's when I snapped, my eyes blanketed with anger and fear. I turn to Mikey. "Mikey," I tell him quietly, "I need you to take my phone, and run as fast as you can to the school. I need you to call Leo on your way and tell him that I need some help. Say one of my friends are in trouble and that we're on Firecore street. Got it?"

Mikey nodded before taking off down the street. I look back towards the two and watch as Fang's father tries to drag her down the sidewalk. _This isn't a good idea,_ I think, but my feet reacted faster than my brain.

I run towards the two and jump onto Fang's father's back. "Leave her alone!" I yell as I begin to tug on his short hair. Fang's father's grip releases on her, and she tumbles to the ground.

"You little runt!" He yells as he tries to grab me by something, but he fails miserably.

I growl inside of my head. _Every man has a weak spot, and that weak spot is the same for them all,_ I think unpleasantly. I jump down to the concrete and in one swift move, I kick the man down where a man should never be kicked.

His face contorts into one of pain. And I scowl at him, a growl coming along with the package.

I look down the street to find Leo running down the street along with Raph. "What's wrong?" He asks me before his eyes land upon the pain filled man.

"This man attacked Fang. I stopped him. Mikey's at the school as we speak."

"So I've been told." Leo says as he looks to the man and then down at Fang.

"Fang," He asks, "do you know this man? What does he want? Why did he attack you?"

Fang sighs gently as she begins to stand, rubbing her hand against the top of her head. "I guess it's time for me to come clean."

 **This chapter uploading gave me quite a bit of trouble, but I got it up for you guys! Yay! Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know. Your opinion matters. :)**


	7. Slipping

The four of us sat at home. Leo had called the school saying that we had a family matter to attend when he came to get Mikey. I sat across from Fang, Mikey cuddled up into my side.

Leo sat next to Raph, Raph's eyebrows knitted together in slight confusion and anger. "Alright, Fang," He says, "explain to us who that man was and what he wanted please."

Fang sighed heavily while she looked at one of her cuts across her arm. "My life has never been easy," She starts off, "when I was a little girl, I was always treated differently than other kids. I had started out with homeschooling. Well, if you could call it that. I was never taught as a child. My parents didn't teach me, and they never set me up on an internet school. They would lock me in my room all day every day. I was lucky if they brought me a cracker, which I would get about every two weeks or so." She stopped, her head had been bent down to her knees, her hazel eyes closed. She slowly opened them and looked into Leonardo's blue eyes.

Leo looks at her, his eyes calm and urging her to continue. "Take your time, Fang." He told her soothingly. Leo had always had that effect on people. His voice could calm the most troubled soul.

She nodded as she took in a shaky breath before closing her eyes once more. "They…" She stopped again. She shook her head, tears peeking their way into the corners of her eyes.

I look at her sympathetically. I move Mikey out of my side carefully before walking over to her and placing a gentle hand on her own. Her head bolted up, her glassy hazel eyes looking into my own maroon ones. I smile sadly at her. "Take your time," I tell her. "We're here for you."

She nods gently before shutting her eyes once more and moving her head back towards her lap. "They chained me to the walls with wrist and neck fastens. Those are basically bracelets and a necklace that are too tight to hang loosely and are held back by chains that are attached to the wall. Kind of like what they did in the medieval times," She clarified. "They beat me. They beat me with their bare hands, with whips, glass bottles, basically anything they could get their hands on. They burned me with blowtorches, lighters, and lit cigarette butts."

"What did your father mean by you forgetting to clean your mess?" I inquired softly.

She took in another shaky breath, her skin awful pale. "He means the blood that splattered on the wall last night. It's my job to clean any and all blood spilt by me after a beating to make sure people don't find out."

Mikey looked at Fang with a look of horror. Leo pulled Mikey into his side since I was comforting Fang at the moment. "That's terrible." I whisper.

She nodded lightly with a gentle sniff. "Yeah," She said as she dabbed at her wet eyes with the bottom of her shirt. "I guess it is." I frowned lightly as I reached to the coffee table and grabbed a tissue. I looked into Fang's eyes with a sad but determined look in my eyes as I dab at her eyes with the tissue.

"You're not going back," I tell her as I wipe her tears away. "You can't go back."

"I have to," She says with a sniff. "They'll find me if I don't. They have before, and they will again."

I sigh as I take her wrists into my hands. "Look at me, Fang," I tell her sternly yet softly. She does so, her hazel eyes looking into my maroon ones. "We won't let them get their hands on you. They'll have to go through us first. We'll call the police on them, we'll do something. But you are not going back into that house. Not on my watch."

Her eyes widened in fear. "N-No," She stuttered with a shake of her head, "I can't! They'll put me in a home! You guys have no idea what it's like in one of those. I can't be put into a home, I can't!" She protested as more tears fell from her eyes.

"Fang," I say firmly, "I don't want you to be passed around like this, but this is for the best. I'd rather not know where you are but know that you're safe than know where you are and that you aren't safe. You have to trust us on this one. Ok? Do you trust me?"

She sniffed lightly, sobbing lightly. My eyes soften. "Do you trust me?"

After a moment or two I watch her head bob up and down in a slight nod. I smile sadly at her. "Then you know," I tell her, "that I would never make you do anything that would get you hurt."

She sobbed loudly before bringing me into a tight embrace. I hugged her back. "Sh," I sooth gently as I rub her back. "It's going to be ok," I tell her. I look to the picture that hung on the opposite wall. It was a family portrait before Mom and Dad were killed. I sigh gently before nodding once.

"You'll be ok."

OoOoOoO

"You like her." Leo accused while Fang was out of hearing range. We were allowing her to stay for a few nights before we called.

I blushed madly. "Wh-What?" I asked innocently. "I do not!"

He smiled like a grand fool. "Don't even try to get your way out of this one. I see the way you look at her. You like her."

I blush crimson, and I look away from Leo's stare, my eyes directed towards the floor. "So what if I do." I mumbled.

"So what if you do?" Leo asked with a slightly raised voice. His voice was ecstatic to say the least. "Donnie, it's your first crush ever," Leo said with a smile on his face, "and that's huge!"

I roll my eyes as I continue to look at the floor. "Just don't tell her." I ask pleadingly.

Leo snorts slightly. "No problem, little brother."

Little brother…

When was the last time Leo called me that exactly?

Little brother…

"Thanks again for taking me in for a day or so. It really means a lot." She said as she descended the stairs.

I snapped out of my daze immediately and look to her. I smile lightly, my blush still creeping on my face. "No problem," I told her. "We would do it at any time, really."

She bit her lip nervously. "I still feel a bit like I'm intruding. If there is any problem with me being here-any problem at all-just tell me, and I'll be on my way." She said with a guilt ridden look on her face.

I shook my head, my dirty-blonde bangs waving to and fro. "No," I tell her, "it's no problem at all, really. We don't mind."

She didn't smile. She didn't frown. She just tugged on her ponytail. "Thanks." She said quietly while she looked at her scratched wrists and arms.

I looked at her with concern. "Are you ok?"

She looked to me then she looked to Leo. She shook her head before walking up to Leo. She reached into her back pocket and took out a small bottle. My eyes widened.

It was one of those Rx bottles that were reddish-orange in color. _What's she doing with that,_ I wonder? _Is she sick?_

She gave the bottle to Leo and allowed him to look at the bottle. His blue eyes wandered the bottle, his eyes scrunched in confusion. "These are strong, prescribed sleeping pills," He said as he looked to me. "And they aren't prescribed to you," He looked back to Fang with a questioning gaze. "Why do you have these?"

"They're my mom's," Fang admitted. She looked to the window that revealed the rain coming down outside. The rain drenched the driveway, leaving the normally white cement and light brown color. "She never uses them. She doesn't need them anyways. She's always passed out due to too much alcohol intake."

"That," Leo says as he twirls the bottle in his hand, "still doesn't explain why you have them."

She sighed, her hazel eyes still looking outside. "I'm at my breaking point," She said with shaky breaths, her eyes glazing over with tears. "She doesn't use them so I…took them from her," She tugged a bit harder at her blue ponytail as if to make herself forget what situation she was in. "I…planned on taking the entire bottle right after school…b-b-but you guys stopped my dad for the time being, so I didn't have the chance to."

Leo sighed and walked towards Fang, placing a gentle finger underneath her chin and directing her eyes to his own. "You were intentionally going to kill yourself?" He asked. It hadn't needed to be ask.

The answer was very clear.

Fang nodded weakly, a tear falling from her eye. "I couldn't t-take the beatings anymore."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked as I neared her, my eyes gentle and sad.

She sniffed softly. "I didn't want you to think of me as weak. So I thought, if I give the pills to Leonardo, I won't have the chance to take them."

Leo looked to the white tablets that sat in the bottle before looking back up at Fang. "I won't let these be around you. You are not to take them, and I shall hide them."

OoOoOoO

I want to say that it may have been around a week after Raphael's and my argument. The Twin's Day competitions were coming up and they were coming up fast. Needless to say, I had no desire to go at this point.

A twin isn't someone who stabs you in the back.

That's what bullies are for.

And who wants to go to something with a bully?

Raph and I hadn't spoken to each other save for when the whole thing with Fang went down. But that was only a sentence or three. The normal, _are you ok,_ and, _are you hurt,_ questions were the only ones that really popped up.

Not that _he_ didn't want to speak to me. It was _I_ who didn't want to speak to him. And I didn't. Not unless it was absolutely necessary. And the necessity to do so hadn't made itself known, so I didn't speak to him, and he didn't speak to me.

I saw the glances he threw my way.

I ignored them.

I heard him speaking to his friends about how he messed up.

I didn't care.

And, yes, I have allowed him back into our room, but whenever I see him, I act as if I don't know him. Well, I thought I had known him.

Apparently I was wrong.

Who betrays their twin like that?

Raphael does.

I growl underneath my breath as my pencil continues to make several letters that formed words on the lined paper. Though, due to my anger, my pencil was being pressed a tad bit too hard to the paper causing a small bit of its graphite to chip off and fall onto the paper. This did not make me let up my grip.

I heard the door open and close.

I didn't look up.

I didn't need to.

I knew who it was.

I heard as he fell on top of his bed, folder in hand. He didn't like the silence that I had forced upon the two of us. Often when he was in our room he listened to music through earbuds. It was the only way for his mind to escape the silence was my guess.

The normal silence went on for maybe another five minutes before he broke it.

"Would you please talk to me?" He asked me.

I didn't respond. I just allowed my pencil to continue to wander the paper.

He growled lowly. "Donatello, how much longer are you going to keep this up?"

Again, I am silent except for the silent scribbles that echoed from the friction of my pencil against the paper.

He placed his hands on his head, his hands tugging at his black hair. "Please, speak, Donatello!" He yelled. "Michelangelo isn't even talking to me because you aren't! He thinks I did something that deserves me to be in the Stoney-lonesome."

I stop writing for a brief second. I look up into his emerald green eyes. They look desperate. I squint my eyes and shake my head before I go back to writing.

He sighs loudly. "Y'know what?" He asks in a raised voice. "Forget it! I don't need you, I don't need Michelangelo, I don't need anybody! I'm doing perfectly fine on my own! I only tried to get ya to speak because Leonardo forced me!" He yelled. He shook his head before sighing. He picked up his red hoody before stomping out of the room. "Biggest waste of my life." He grumbled before leaving our room.

When he slammed the door, his folder fell to the floor, papers falling out all around the room. I sigh in frustration as I slide off of my bed and go to pick up the papers off of the floor.

I flipped the paper over expecting to see homework or notes.

But no.

This isn't close to any of those options.

It's a note.

From Nathan.

 _Remember what I told you,_ it read. _Sure, you did do part of the job, but not all of it. That's why we hurt your good ol' buddy, Casey. You remember the agreements. Follow through._

I squinted my eyes in confusion. _Agreements,_ I wonder? _What agreements?_ I look to another paper on the floor. I grab it.

Sure enough, it's another note.

 _Nice job tearing up your twin's locker, but you know that you have to go farther, or else we'll start hurting the ones you care about. Just show everyone one little picture. That's it._

I shook my head, eyes still squinted. _Picture,_ I wondered? _What picture._

This note must have been passed around between the two a bit. Below that note was another in thick sharpie, in Raphael's handwriting.

 _I'm not doing that,_ it said. _No way in heck._

My brow furrows even more in confusion. _Doing what,_ I wonder? _What was Raph supposed to do that he didn't?_

There is one more note. I put the one in my hands down and pick the last one up. The words are much sloppier. But that was only to make it look more threatening.

 _Why can't you just post the picture of your nerdy brother? It's not like he's worth anything._

I felt a pang at my heart at that statement. _Worthless,_ I think dejectedly? But Raph had written back in the deep, sharpie marker.

 _Don't you ever say that about my brother,_ the note read! _He's worth more than you'll ever know! He's smart, funny, caring, levelheaded, and better than I'll ever be!_

My eyes stopped gliding the paper for a second. _He thinks that,_ I wonder? _But that's so untrue._ I go back to reading what Raphael had written.

 _If you want to pick on anyone, pick on me! You are not to even slightly touch him! He has a brighter future than I, and he's going to be an excellent scientist when he's older! I will not post any embarrassing pictures of him at all!_

The note in my hand shook. _He did that…for me,_ I thought? But that wasn't it.

There was more.

 _You're making a big mistake, dude,_ Nate had written. _If you don't do this, Casey gets it._

 _Donatello means more to me than any other friend I have. If this is how it has to be…then so be it. I'm not hurting my brother like that. No way,_ Raph had written.

 _Fine,_ Nate wrote. _Your loss._

That's where the note ended. _Raph was trying to protect Casey and me,_ I thought crestfallen. "And all I did was yell at him." I said aloud quietly. I sigh as I allow the note to fall to the ground.

"I was a jerk to him," I whisper. I stand from the ground and make my way towards the door. "A total jerk." I say as I open the door and run down the stairs.

I look around the living room that only consists of Leo and Mikey, Mikey reading to Leo. I look to Leo with panicked eyes. "Where's Raph?" I asked quickly.

Leo looks to me, confusion etched into his ocean blue eyes. "He said something about going out for a walk, why?"

I sigh loudly as I grab my own purple hoodie. "Because I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life." I mutter before running out of the house.

Of course it's raining. Stupid September. It rains a lot during the autumn months. I guess that's why I get so sick in the autumn, winter, and spring months. Precipitation. I don't always get that sick in summer, but I do have my moments. In fact, I was risking my health just being outside.

But I didn't care at the moment. _I'm so stupid,_ I think angrily. _If I'm such a genius, why couldn't I find this out sooner? Ok, ok,_ I think, _if I was Raphael, where would I be?_

The question wasn't an easy one. Raph went to a lot of places in New York. And New York was fairly big. And almost not at all sanitary. He could be in an alley, the gym, the school, Casey's house, Nate's...

 _Oh,_ I think, _he better not be at Nate's._ Though the idea was an option, it wasn't the most likely…but it was still there…

I shake my head. _He's not there, Donatello,_ I think. _He has no reason to go back at the moment. He has no reason to._

I look to the rooftops of the New York skyscrapers. The skyscrapers were so tall, they looked as if they were holding up the sky and all that was in it. Though they did have their own beauty, they were pretty ugly. New York was very polluted, and very crowded. Almost like a smaller version of China or Japan.

I run down the sidewalks of New York, my eyes darting through the many crowds of people walking the sidewalks, looking for my older twin. "Sorry." I ended up muttering to many people who I ran into that were just as crowded as I was on that sidewalk.

One person bumped into me and caused me to fall flat on my butt, my glasses falling off into some unknown spot. I growled underneath my breath as I allowed my fingers to wander the crowded sidewalk in search of my black, rectangular glasses. I sighed a breath of relief when my fingers intertwined with the part that goes behind my ear. I put the glasses on my face and stand once more, pushing past the rushing people.

"Where could he be?" I wonder aloud.

That's when an idea hits me…

I look up at the tall apartment buildings that have flat rooves. Each apartment building has a fire escape. "The rooftops!" I say in triumph. Raphael loves gazing out upon the city!

I quickly escape the horde of people and look for the nearest apartment building. It wasn't far at all. Lining the wall of the outside was a long black fire escape that reached the top of the building. I take in a deep breath.

"Here goes." I say as I take the first step onto the fire escape. Now, here's where lacking physical strength comes to bite me…

Ascending up the fire escape? No biggie. That's no problem at all for me. I'm relatively fit, possibly a bit underweight, but nothing too drastic. When I reach the top…this is the hard part.

Of course, Raphael isn't on the one apartment building that I chose out of thousands, so to get to the others I have to jump rooves.

This could get a bit interesting.

Especially since it is still raining.

I walk back to the edge of the roof. I rub my hands together. "Here goes nothing." I say breathily. And with that, I run. I run as hard as I can. Sprinting. And with that…I jump when the ledge reaches my toe. I jump as hard as I can.

I'm flying through the air.

I feel as if I'm flying anyways.

A moment that should have lasted maybe a few seconds felt like a few hours. But all too quickly, the feeling ended as my feet made hard impact with the concrete roofing. I stumble when they hit and do a summer sault. Unintentionally, so that had been a bit painful. "Ugh…" I had groaned as I had sat up. I stood on my feet and looked around.

That had been only the first jump.

And Raph wasn't on this building.

Needless to say, by the time I _had_ found him I was out of breath. Huffing and puffing my chest, my lungs had felt like they were on fire. Again, I'm _not_ out of shape…I'm just not as muscular as I'd like to be.

"There you are." I say out of breath.

He tensed. His emerald green eyes didn't even bother to look back at me. He was sitting close to the edge of the roof, his knees drawn into his chest, his arms wrapping around his knees. "I thought you weren't talking to me," He said quietly. "I thought you thought I was the worst person ever imaginable."

I sigh gently. "Raph," I say as I walk a little closer to him, but not too close, "I saw the notes."

He didn't relax.

His muscles stayed tensed.

Almost as if he was preparing himself for something.

"So what?" He asked me. "Just because you saw the notes, I'm suddenly not a monster. I'm suddenly not the bully you thought me to be? Saying things like, 'He's not my twin,' or, 'I don't know him,'? Now, we're just ok because you say we are?" He asked, a very cold presence making themselves known in his voice.

"No!" I say quickly. "That's not what I intended, Raph!"

"Well, maybe I never _wanted_ to trash your locker!" Raph yelled at me, turning his head back at me abruptly. "Maybe I never _wanted_ for you to get yelled at by the teachers considering every one of them know just as much as I do of how far you are going to get in life!" Raph stood up, his emerald green eyes penetrating my own maroon ones. "Maybe I never _wanted_ to chance you getting laughed at by the entire school because I know how rough everyone is on you!" Raph balled his hands into fists, his teeth clenched. "Maybe I never _wanted_ anyone to get hurt! But you couldn't just believe someone you've known ever since birth to now, could you?! You needed proof of course! Because Raphael is just the worst person ever imaginable! So, completely horrid that his own little brother won't even talk to him! Of course you needed proof. Because you couldn't trust your own twin." He said, his volume diminishing at the end of his rant.

I shook my head, my mouth open, my eyes wide in shock. "Raph," I say, my voice utterly quiet, "you have no idea how wrong you are."

"Oh, no," Raph says, shaking his head, his teeth and fists still clenched, "for once, you're the one who is wrong, Donatello."

"No," I tell him, tears threatening to fall from my eyes, "I'm not, Raph. This is insane. I didn't know that something terrible was threatening to happen."

"Yeah," Raph laughed bitterly, "well, there was. And I tried to protect you from complete and utter embarrassment. Thankfully, it succeeded, but for a price," He turned his back towards me, his hands folded behind his back, "my own twin's trust."

I sigh. "Raph," I say as I take a step forward. My foot, however, slid, having stepped in a puddle, and I fell backwards. I expected to land on solid ground-or in this case, roof-but I hit nothing but air. I was barely lucky to catch the ledge of the roof. My breathing turned heavy as my head moved to look down.

I really shouldn't have.

Everyone looked so small. Everyone. I looked around instead. To my sides, to the sky, anywhere but down. "Raphael!" I cry desperately. "Raph, please, help me!" I say as I take gasping breaths.

Raph's head peers over the ledge, his eyes looking into my own, his holding their own fear. "Don't worry," He cried even though he felt panicked himself, "I'll pull you up! Grab my hand!" He yelled as he offered me his hand.

I looked down at the people then back up to Raph once more. "I can't!" I yell in fear.

"Yes," Raph assures me, "you can! I won't let you fall, Donnie! I promise!"

Again, I look down at the people, down at the ground. _It's so far away…_

My hand feels sweaty, and I feel the ledge of the roof slipping right from my fingers.

"Raph!" I yell in fear. "Raph, I'm slipping!"

 **Looks like Donnie's in a tad bit of trouble...uh oh! Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know! Your opinion matters! :)**


	8. Past Memories

"You have to grab on!" Raph yells in fear.

I shake my head, both of my hands sweating crazily as they cling to the ledge. "I can't, Raphael! I can't!"

"Donatello," He says in sincerity; I can see it in his eyes, "you _have_ to grab on, now! I will not let you fall! I promise!"

I look him in the eyes. _He's my twin,_ I think. _He wouldn't let me fall._ I let my right hand fall from the ledge, my left being the only thing keeping me from going splat on the hard cement. I raise my right hand almost immediately and grab Raphael's left.

"Now give me your left hand!" He yells as he holds me with his left hand. I whimper slightly before obeying and letting go of the edge completely, my left hand shooting up to find Raphael's right. He heaved me up onto the top of the roof, and I felt safer once my body was dragged across the roof. When I was safely on the rooftop, Raph collapsed onto the roof gasping for breath.

I looked into Raph's eyes with my own. Tears streamed down both of our faces before we both enveloped each other in a hug.

"I'm so sorry, man," I sob, my face being covered by his shoulder. "I'm so sorry!"

I heard Raph sniff, his tears soaking my sleeve that covered my shoulder. "You Bonehead," He sniffed, his voice muffled by my sleeve. "You've got nothing to be sorry for."

"Yes, I do," I sobbed into his shoulder. "I made you feel like dirt. I made you feel lower than dirt," I sobbed as I clutched him tighter, "and I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry!"

Raph sniffed into my shoulder, his tears continuing to wet my shirt. "All's forgiven," He whispered. "Just… _never_ …and I mean _never_ …do that again! Give your twin a heart attack, will ya?!" Raph cried with angry fear.

I let out a watery chuckle, tears still streaming down my cheeks from my eyes. "Yeah, Raph," I say through sniffs, "I'll never do that again."

OoOoOoO

I felt a gentle rocking of my bed. That's all it took to wake me up. I'm a somewhat light sleeper, so rocking my bed wouldn't take much to wake me.

I slowly open my eyes as I peer out at the person who had woken me. I'm surprised to see Raph, his head on a pillow he had brought while he covered up with a plush blanket he had brought, his feet hanging out. He never did like sleeping with covered feet.

"Raph?" I ask sleepily? "What are you doing? What time is it?" I stop short when I see his face. Just barely lit up by the moonlight that seeped through the light blue curtains, Raph's face was stained with tears, his eyes were red and puffy, his lips quivered, but he tried to make it look like nothing was wrong.

That didn't work too well.

"Raph?" I ask. "Raph what's wrong?"

He took in a shaky breath, still trying to upkeep his reputation and his cool. "N-Nothing." He says shakily.

I glare at him gently, my thumb brushing away his tears. "I'm not an idiot, Raph," I tell him. My glare softens lightly. "Just tell me what's wrong."

He shakes his head before he turns his head the other way and begins to fall asleep. I sigh with a shake of my head before lying down and falling back asleep.

Not for long though.

Not even an hour later, I am awoken by loud shouts and yells.

"No! Please, no! I'm sorry!" Raph yelled, tears running down his face. I look at him sadly before pushing myself up onto my elbows, my hands grabbing his shoulders. I begin to shake him softly.

"Raph," I say, "Raph, wake up. You're having a nightmare. Wake up, Raph." That didn't work. Of course it didn't. Raph was a heavy sleeper.

See…opposites.

I sigh as I grip his shoulders a bit tighter. "Raph!" I say a bit louder, about loud enough to wake him up. "Wake up! It's just a dream!"

With that, he jerks awake, his eyes darting around frantically. As soon as he saw me, he pulled me into a tight hug. "Good, gosh! Never scare me like that again!" He yelled, his eyes scrunched in pain, tears cascading down his cheeks.

I was taken aback from the action, but I slowly began to hug back, confusion etched into my brow. "Hey," I say soothingly, "what's wrong? What was your nightmare about?"

Raph sniffed, him still not realizing that he was awake. "You fell," He whimpered lightly. My eyes scrunched in confusion as to what he meant. "You fell and I broke my promise."

Suddenly it dawned on me. The events that had occurred earlier must have been plaguing Raphael's dreams. That made sense. After our parents' deaths, Raph had nightmares for about a year. Nothing really left his mind without leaving its mark.

Especially since Raph had been in the crash with Mom and Dad.

"It was just a nightmare, bro. I'm right here, and I'm alive. Everything's fine. Go back to sleep."

"B-B-But-" Raph stuttered sleepily.

"I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere." I assured him.

He nodded slowly before allowing his head to fall back against the pillow, him falling asleep in about ten minutes.

I sighed.

Every time Raph had a nightmare, he went into this trance like state that made him much more open than he really was; he never remembers it in the morning, however.

I sigh as I allow my head to fall back against the pillows. _He won't remember,_ I think as my eyes begin to close. _He never does._

OoOoOoO

 _The rain outside wasn't letting up anytime soon. Thunder cracked across the sky with an earth shattering boom. The lightning had been no better, tearing the sky in half each time its hot plasma ripped its way across the atmosphere._

 _My twelve-year-old mind had been set on my homework that had been challenging towards myself. History, though I wasn't terrible at it, had never been my strong suit. Science, and mathematics were where I had really stood._

 _A six-year-old Mikey had sat on the couch of the living room, his thumb stuck in his mouth, slobber dripping from his mouth and down his chin. Sucking his thumb had been a very bad habit that took until he was seven to break._

 _Leo was pacing in the kitchen, his fifteen-year-old mind fearing the worst. I, in turn, growled under my breath. He had been pacing for the past half hour!_

 _"Stop pacing," I complained, "you're making me dizzy."_

 _"They've been gone for nearly three hours," He muttered, followed by a clap of thunder. "Hopefully everything's ok."_

 _"I'm sure they are fine," I brushed off as I returned to answering the question of the Ancient Mayan civilization. "Maybe they just stopped to get some groceries."_

 _"In a thunder storm this dangerous?!" Leo protested, his pacing never ceasing. "Really, Donnie. It's 7:56pm. They should've been home earlier."_

 _"Traffic?" I offered with a shrug of my shoulders._

 _Leo sighed as he leant his elbows against the counter, his hands cradling his head. "I've already checked all traffic reports. There's one traffic jam, but it's a route that Mom and Dad wouldn't normally take."_

 _I shrugged, my mind now completely off of the subject of Ancient Mayan, Inca, and Hopewell Indians. "Well, maybe they're caught up in that traffic jam?" I scoot off of the chair I was sitting at and walk up to Leo, looking over his shoulder, his phone lit up showing the traffic jam and its hour expectations. "What's the cause of the traffic jam anyways?"_

 _Leo sighed as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "A car wreck. It looks pretty bad, too. A woman, man, and a boy."_

 _I look at Leo through my black rimmed glasses, a sudden pang of anticipation hitting my chest. "Um…Mom is a woman, Dad is a man, and Raph is a boy. You don't think…" I trailed off, Leo's already worried face looking downright horrified after my offering._

 _He shook his head. "Again," He said in a voice that didn't sound too reassuring, "they haven't a reason to be on that road."_

 _I nod as I exhale, my eyes closing briefly. My feet take me towards the couch in the living room where Mikey sat. Once again, thunder tore through the sky, a thunderous boom echoing throughout the busy state. The loud sound caused Mikey to jump in his seat. I sat up on the couch next to him, pulling him into my side._

 _He directed his baby blue eyes into my maroon ones before sticking his thumb back into his mouth. A shrill ring echoed throughout the house causing my eyes to widen. Leo was quick to answer._

 _"Hello?" He asked, running a hand through his thick brown hair._

 _I listened intently, my eyes wandering to the white home phone that was held in Leo's hand._

 _"This is he." He answered._

 _I listened with anticipation. Who wanted to know?_

 _I watched as Leo's eyes flew wide open, fear and concern etched into the gentle yet fierce irises. "What? Are they alright?"_

 _More silence that I had been anticipating, but by now, I was on my feet, my eyes shining in fear, my brow creased._

 _Leo's eyes filled with tears before a thought had dawned upon him. "What about my brother?! Is he alright?!" Leo asked, his right thumb flying to his mouth, his teeth biting against the nail it possessed, a tear trailing down his face._

 _A small sigh left Leo's lips, but he began to hiccup, more tears falling from his eyes. "Alright. If he wakes up, tell him we'll be there soon."_

 _With a few more spoken words on the other line, Leo hung up and grabbed his car keys. Yes, he had only had a permit, but I could tell that this was serious._

 _"Grab Mikey," He said through hiccups as he grabbed his coat and throwing mine and Mikey's to me. "We're leaving."_

 _"What's wrong?" I ask as I help Mikey slip his arms through his orange rain coat._

 _Leo sighed as he waited for us by the front door. "The crash was from Mom and Dad," He said. My eyes flew wide open, questions racing through my mind. "Mom and Dad…they…they were killed instantly." Leo said with a sob._

 _My eyes widened, my eyes immediately filling with tears. A sudden thought hit me. "Raph!" I yelled. "Raph was with them! Is he ok?!" I yelled desperately._

 _Leo placed his hands on my shoulders. "C-Calm down…Donnie. Listen to me ok?" Shaking, I nodded. He smiled sadly. "Good," He said calmly, "Raph's alive. He has a broken arm that needs surgery, he has a concussion and is unconscious, but they believe that he's going to pull through. He looks pretty banged up, but nothing looks life threatening. Which is why we have to get there before he wakes up."_

 _I nod with a sob, tears running down my cheeks. "Ok." I whisper. Leo runs a hand through my dirty-blonde hair, tears falling from his eyes, dripping down his cheeks, but he put on a sad smile for me._

 _"Everything's going to be ok," He said through hiccups. "We'll figure this out."_

 _I nod as I go to pick Mikey up, him immediately noticing my tears. Since he had been six, he hadn't meant the definition of death or kill. "What's wrong, Donnie?" He asked innocently._

 _I took in a shaky breath as I kissed his forehead. "I love you, Mikey."_

 _Mikey nuzzled his head against mine. "I love you, too, Donnie." He said softly._

 _I placed Mikey in his booster seat before Leo began to drive off with us into the pouring rain._

 _OoOoOoO_

 _I ran down the hallways of the hospital, Leo falling behind, his arms filled with a certain child named Mikey. Room 96, I reminded myself. Room 96!_

 _As room 96 came into my vision, I made a mad sprint for the door. I immediately grasped the handle and almost ripped it off with the force I had to stop myself from flinging into the wall from my built up momentum. I immediately opened the door, the sight before me making me tear up once more._

 _He had cuts all over his body as if he had been dropped into a bucket of glass and told to swim to the surface. He had a breathing mask on his face along with a red cast over his right arm. His ankle looked seriously bruised, but it had a mere splint instead of a cast. I sobbed as I walked slowly towards his hospital bed._

 _"R-Raphie?" I asked quietly. I plopped down in a chair that was next to his bed and allowed my tears to flow. I grabbed his cut up hand and placed it against my forehead, a few of my tears entering the small open wounds. "I…I'm so sorry, Raphie. I'm so sorry you had to go through that." I sobbed, my tears continuing to wet his cut up hand._

 _Leo moved to Raph's other side, his fingers running through Raph's black hair. He chuckled sadly, tears pouring from his eyes. "Look what you've got yourself into now."_

 _But Mikey's reaction?_

 _Oh._

 _I won't ever be able to forget._

 _"Raphie?" He asked in a small voice. He ran to Raph's side, picking up his hand in his own smaller one. He allowed it to fall from his frail grip, expecting Raph to make it stay up, but it hadn't. It flopped down lifelessly. Mikey's eyes had widened so much; I was afraid his eyes would pop out of their sockets._

 _"Raphie?! Raphie, wake up!" Mikey began to yell, but to no avail. "Please, Raphie! Raphie, wake up! Raphael, please!" I had been surprised. Mikey had had the hardest time saying Raph's name, but he had just done it flawlessly. Probably from adrenaline._

 _Maybe after two hours, Raph's eyes began to flutter open, his green eyes glazed over from his concussion. He moaned lightly, his hand tightening around my own. My eyes shot wide open, my hand tightening around his as well. "Raph?"_

 _He groaned lightly. "Donnie?" He asked in a raspy voice. "What happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck." He complained in a quiet voice._

 _I hiccupped before lying my head gently against his stomach. He was confused, but, nonetheless, his fingers lingered to my dirty-blonde, carefully tugging at my short hairs. Raph's eyes had glanced towards the sleeping Leo who was holding a sleeping Mikey._

 _"You were in a car crash, Raphie," I sobbed, my face burying deeper into his hospital gown. "An oncoming truck didn't look where it was going and smashed right into the front of the car." I said with a sniff._

 _His eyes suddenly widened as he tried to sit up. "Where's Mom and Dad? I was with them! Where are they?" Raph asked fearfully._

 _I sat up and placed my hands on Raph's shoulders, my maroon eyes looking into his emerald green ones. My eyes held a sad look that only made Raph's fearful gaze become fiercer. "Raph," I say sadly, "Mom and Dad…they…they didn't make it."_

 _Raph's eyes widened. "Th-They died?"_

OoOoOoO

I woke up in a cold sweat, my breathing heavy and my eyes frantic. My eyes land on the spot that Raph had previously been only to reveal an empty spot.

 _He must have woken up,_ I think. I swing my legs over the side of my bed, my fingers interlocking with my glasses on the end table. I unfold the earpieces and slide the black framed devices on the ridge of my nose.

I get up and get dressed in my purple T-Shirt. _Saturday,_ I think with a slight smile, the dream still fresh in my mind. Well, it wasn't a dream. It had happened. Raph had been in the car crash with Mom and Dad, but he had been much more fortunate than Mom and Dad themselves.

Sure, he had needed surgery on his arm, but he showed no signs of fear. When I was completely dressed I walked out into the hallway and down the stairs. I saw a happy Mikey playing with his truck on the living room floor. I smiled softly at him as he made little truck noises to make his truck be more realistic.

I sat on the couch as I ran my fingers through Mikey's blonde hair. "Good morning, buddy. Sleep well?"

Mikey nodded lightly, his truck wandering up my leg. "Yeah. Leo went to work, and I don't know where Raphie is. Maybe Casey's?" Mikey offered.

I rolled my eyes good naturedly. "More than likely. To be fair, though, he hasn't been to Casey's since Casey got beat up."

I lean back against the couch as a sudden ill feeling washes over me and gentle coughs wrack through my throat.

Mikey looked at me with worried eyes as he crawled up onto the couch. "Are you ok?" He asked me as he placed the back of his hand on my forehead.

I nodded slightly. "I'm fine, Mikey. Just a little cough."

Mikey was ready to protest, light blue eyes wide. "But-"

"I'll be ok," I interrupt him. "If I feel very bad, I'll tell you."

Mikey continued to frown. "But Leo's not here if things get bad."

I smile as I hug him into my side. "I'll be fine. Besides, you're here. And that's all I need." I say. He looks unconvinced, but nods nonetheless.

 **Hmm, is Donnie really as fine as he says he is? And if he isn't, is Mikey going to be able to help him? Stay tuned for the next chapter! Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know! Your opinion matters! :)**


	9. Diagnosis

Rather quickly and at an alarming rate, my health began to drop. I pulled my knees to my chest to try and relieve some of the pain, but it barely helped if it did at all. Sweat began to pour down my forehead, and Mikey-to say the least-was pretty on edge.

"Donnie…" He whimpered, "I think that this is getting serious. Sh-Should I call some-"

"N-No…" I whimpered out, curling into a tighter ball, a deep red blush spreading against my cheeks. "I'm…I'm fine."

His baby blue eyes were wide at seeing me like this. I could tell that he was very terrified. Maybe making him not call someone put him on edge, but I really just thought he was making a big deal out of nothing. He began to tremble where he stood. He walked up to me and placed a shaking hand against my sweaty forehead.

"You…You're really warm, Donnie." He whimpered out. I just buried my face deeper into the cushion of the couch.

"'m fine, Mike. J…Just a little…sick." I gave out a weak cough. I could hear the sound of his bare feet running to some other room in the house, his steps echoing against the wooden flooring.

He may have been gone for about five minutes before I could hear the sound of his feet running back into the living room. He turned my head with his pointer finger. Before I could comprehend what was happening, he shoved a thermometer into my mouth. I was taken aback slightly but realize soon enough what he was doing.

It felt like an eternity before the small device began to beep. I think Mikey thought so, too. Almost immediately, the young boy gripped the thermometer and ripped it out of my mouth. He looked at the numbers before looking at me with concern in his eyes.

"D-Donnie, 104.2 seems a bit high, d-d-doesn't it?" Mikey asked fearfully. I just closed my maroon eyes before nuzzling my head into the cushion of the couch once more.

"'m fine, Mikey. J-Just-" I had to cut my sentence off short due to a coughing fit that ripped right out of my throat. Mikey looked at me worriedly, helping me sit up. He rubbed the middle of my spine, his eight-year-old face lighting up in apprehension.

"You're not fine." Mikey told me. I shivered violently. My eyes fell and I became limp. Or…at least I had thought so.

"Donnie?!" I could hear Mikey scream distinctly. It sounded as if it was underwater, though. "Donnie?!" He tried again. I felt as if I was sort of floating. But I felt like I was sinking at the same time. "Donatello?!" His voice is frantic. I can hear his feet pounding against the wooden floor once again. There was the sound of something scraping against the floor. Like…maybe a chair.

"H-Hello? I-I need help! M-My brother! He…He won't stop shaking!"

Then…nothing.

OoOoOoO

There was a slight ringing in my ears as I slowly came to. I shook my head slowly, feeling something soft behind my head. Slowly, my eyelids began to rise. My vision turned out to be a bit fuzzy and a bit dizzy, but soon enough it began to focus out.

I went to move my right arm to rub my eyes only to find myself not able to. In concern, I looked down to the weighted down appendage. I couldn't help but smile slightly when I was struck with the sight. Mikey's head was pressed against my right arm, his eyes closed signifying his slumber.

I frowned.

His cheeks shone with a vague wetness. My brow furrowed. Had he been…crying? I sighed slightly before taking in my surroundings.

Wait…

Where was I?

White walls…sanitized sent…white sheeted bed…white covers…blue chairs…

 _The hospital…_ I groaned inwardly. I moved my left wrist to rub at my eyes only to feel a stinging sensation. I looked to my left wrist only to find a needle inserted in my vein. I groaned as I followed the small tube up to find a small IV drip hanging from one of those hangers specially made for IVs. _Great,_ I thought. _What drugs do they have me on now?_

I could feel Mikey's grip on my right arm become significantly stronger. "S-Stop shaking…" He whimpered. My brow furrowed into concern as I began to shake his shoulder gently.

"Hey, bud, wake up. It's just a nightmare. Wake up."

"S-Stop shaking! Please! You're scaring me! S-Stop it!"

I began to shake his shoulder more vigorously. "Mikey, wake up!" I say louder. Mikey wakes with a jerk, his eyes puffy and bloodshot.

"B-Brother?" He asked in a small whisper.

I nodded gently. He placed one of his tiny hands against my cheek, not leaving the same position he was already in. "Are…Are you dead?"

I was taken aback by the question. "Wh-What? N-No. I-I'm not-"

"You were shaking…s-s-so much," He interrupted. He buried his face into the crook of my neck. "You…You were sh-shaking, a-and I couldn't…s-s-stop you." He cried.

My brow furrows in distress as I rub his back soothingly. "Hey. Mikey, I'm fine. Everything's ok. Everything is going to be just fine." For some reason this made him erupt into louder and stronger sobs, his arms wrapping around my neck.

"I…I…We've already lost Mom and…D-D-Dad…I…I don't want to lose you, too!" He sobbed into my shirt. My brow furrowed in concern.

"Sh, Mike," I soothed, my hand rubbing up and down his back, occasionally meeting up to his mop of curly, blonde hair and rubbing the back of his head. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here. If there's one thing that everyone knows about the Hamato brothers, it's that we're extremely stubborn, and we don't go down without a fight."

I smiled sadly when I heard a small, watery chuckle escape from Mikey's throat. It had been short lived, but it had been there, and that was good enough for me. "I love you, Donnie."

I chuckled gently as my hand rested on his mop of curly hair. "I love you, too, Mikey."

OoOoOoO

It had been maybe an hour at most, but to me it felt like a full day. Time passed _very_ slowly when you're stuck in a hospital bed. But I guess I couldn't really complain when I had the best little brother in the world to make the time seem to go by faster.

Leo finally entered the room, a sad smile lined up on his face. If I were to quickly glance at him, I probably could have thought that it was a normal smile. But when you're brothers, you are unfortunately forced to look at each other's ugly mugs.

"How you two holding up?"

I hadn't noticed him enter the room until he had made his appearance known vocally. I looked up at him from the small paper 'football' in my fingers that Mikey had taught me how to make. I smiled. "Mikey's keeping me occupied. Did you know that nine multiplied by three equals twenty-seven?" I asked with a wink towards Leo.

He caught on and let out a smile that made him look like a grand fool. "No, I did not. Mikey's just the genius in the family, isn't he?"

"I guess so." Mikey began to laugh at all that we said. I smiled as I watched his stomach expand and contract with each laughter filled breath he in took and output. _It's way better than watching him cry._

"Ah, are you Leonardo Hamato?" I heard a deep voice ask from the doorway. My maroon eyes almost immediately flew to the opened doorway to reveal a taller man with blue eyes and jet black hair. On his chin and cheeks was a slight stubble, but not quite enough to be said as a full on beard. Upon the ridge of his nose sat wired glasses while his attire consisted of blue scrubs and a white T-shirt.

Leo nodded. "That's me."

The doctor smiled at him and then at me. "We believe we have figured out Donatello's condition."

I almost jumped out of my skin at the news. "Really?" I asked him, now propped up on my knees, my hands clutching the footrest that was on the end of the hospital bed. I guess I was kind of in the position a dog would be in while his tail wagged vigorously. "You guys know what's wrong with me?"

The doctor smiled a bit more as he allowed himself in and shut the door behind him. "We believe so. We think you have an immune deficiency called CVID. Even though this is normally diagnosed after someone has turned forty, it is possible to diagnose sooner. CVID is common hence the name Common Variable Immune Deficiency. Treatment is mandatory if you ever want to strengthen your immune system."

I nodded. I would do anything if it meant staying out of this blasted hospital! "The treatment is given through injections, restoring antibodies that may not be there for you."

"So, overall, he should be fine if the treatments go as expected?" Leo inquired, hope written all over his face.

The doctor nodded. "In short, yes."

I smiled. I was going to be fine! Thank gosh! I didn't think I'd be able to go another year of being in and out of the hospital!

OoOoOoO

"I'm leaving." The sentence was so abrupt that it shocked myself. I looked to her curly blue hair that fell to her waist in the bright red scrunchie that held it up.

"What do you mean you're leaving?" Honestly, I was just in denial. I knew what she meant.

I just didn't want to believe it.

She kicked a stone that came in her way as we continued to walk down the sidewalk towards the school. "The orphanage met a nice foster family that is willing to take me in. I had a meeting with them and even spent a day with them. They treated me like I was their own child. I think I'll really like them." She told me.

I looked up from the white cement sidewalk that seemed endless at this point. _She just got here,_ I thought selfishly. _She can't leave so soon._ "How far will you be?" She didn't look up to meet my gaze. Her eyes stayed directed towards the sidewalk.

"Maybe thirty minutes. It isn't too far…but it isn't too close either."

"When's your last day?" I asked, swiping a piece or dirty-blonde hair out of my face.

"Friday."

Two days? That wasn't nearly long enough. It was already Wednesday. I looked back to her pale face. "So this is really it, isn't it?"

She sighed and finally met my own gaze. "Yeah," She said sadly. "I guess it is."

I don't know what I was thinking. But my feet acted quicker than my head. Or should I say my lips? Without knowing what I was doing, my lips kissed her cheek. I knew that my face looked just like hers.

Shocked.

I looked to her as my cheeks began to burn up only to notice that hers were the same shade as I believed mine to be. "I…I'm sorry. I…I don't know w-what came over me-"

Her lips touched mine. I don't believe it was for too long. Maybe ten seconds. Her lips were on mine and neither of us fought it. I think we both wanted it, really. When we pulled apart we were both smiling gently. "Don't apologize."

I smiled. I felt a bit more courage than I had before. With the courage I had gathered, my fingertips looked for hers. When they found each other, they interlocked and stayed around each other.

And that's exactly how we walked to school.

 **I'm so sorry that this took so long! And that it's so short! I have become Undertale trash and just kept getting story ideas for Undertale that I couldn't think of any for this story! Ah, I make you wait so long, and for what? This crap! I'm so sorry guys! But, uh, hey! I guess we got a bit of romance in this chapter! Yay? Did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know! I love hearing from you guys! :)**


	10. Silence

Tapping my pencil anxiously against the table, I watched as the seconds of the clock began to tick by at a seemingly exceedingly slow rate. _I think that glacier from Antarctica just passed the school,_ I thought.

Raph had been an odd case recently. Yes, I was almost certain that our problems had been resolved amongst each other, but why was he hardly talking to me and being so…secretively lately? Not even Leo knew where he was half of the time, and every time he tried to confront his younger brother Raph would always get defensive and snappish.

It had all of us irked. Leo was frustrated, Mikey was oblivious, and I was confused. What was he doing? Raph's not stupid. He's actually really smart, he just puts his athleticism ahead of his academics. So I didn't have to worry about him doing anything that would cost him a great deal as well as us, right?

I didn't think that there was anything to worry about.

But I was going to get down to the bottom of this once and for all. I was tired of sitting on the sidelines and just watching as my brother disappeared only to arrive home defensive and angry. Granted, anger had always been an emotion that Raph was found beyond impossible to control, but it seemed even harder for him now than usual. Even to the point of him snapping at Mikey and making him cry.

I know that Raph felt bad about it afterwards, though. I could see it in his eyes as he sat on his bed, staring up at his ceiling and listening to music through his earbuds that were connected to his phone. I had seen him apologizing to a sobbing Mikey later that same night, so he had definitely made amends afterwards.

But even after accidentally seeing that apology, nothing was any clearer. Everything was just as foggy as before. I didn't know if I was just confused or also a bit angry, but whatever I was, I wasn't going to let it stop me from figuring out the real reason of Raph's odd behavior.

"Donatello," The teacher snapped, breaking me immediately out of my thoughts and turning my gaze from the ticking clock back to him, "what is the capital of Minnesota?"

I knew the game that this teacher was playing. Since he caught my eyes wandering, he was going to try and quiz me geographically to try and have a reason to make me write a one thousand worded essay. "St. Paul."

The teacher seemed a bit angry for a moment before coming up with a new state. "Louisiana?"

"Baton Rouge."

"Ohio?"

"Columbus."

"California?"

"Sacramento."

"New Jersey?!"

"Trenton."

The teacher sighed, deciding to give up. "You are too smart for your own good, Donatello."

I felt a smirk try and make itself prominent on my lips, but I suppressed it as best as I could, forming a line with my lips accompanied by a blank stare. "So I've been told Mr. Fire."

Mr. Fire took in a breath, ready to finish the lesson he had started earlier, only to be cut off by the shrill screeching of the bell. I smiled slightly at myself before grabbing my backpack off of the back of my chair and sliding it onto my shoulder, pushing my chair in and placing my pencil behind my ear.

I rushed out of the classroom, running to the lockers, specifically Raphael's. I had to catch him before he decided to disappear for hours on end only to return home at nine at night.

Taking two steps at a time downward-a sensation I had never really been able to experience due to constant weakness-down the school's 'master staircase', I made my way to Raph's locker, happy to see that I had beaten him there.

I leaned against his locker, waiting for him to come by, counting the seconds down to get rid of the boredom making itself present in the very pit of my stomach. When his eyes fell upon me after walking from his last class they narrowed with suspicion and confusion. "Need something?"

I crossed my arms over my chest and rolled my eyes to look at my forehead in a thoughtful look and manner. "To know where you are going, why you are going, and why you return home so late. Just that. But I feel like me just asking nicely isn't going to get me anywhere, is it?"

Raph clutched his pencil in between his teeth before moving to his locker to input his passcode to his lock. "Nope," he replied through clenched teeth, "it's not."

"I didn't think so," I sighed gently, staying pressed up against the lockers. He undid his lock and opened his locker, placing unneeded books, papers, and binders away so he could go home with a backpack less burdened. "But I still feel the need to know and the want."

"Well, it's none of your business. That's my stuff to worry about, not yours."

"Worry about?" I asked questioningly, an eyebrow cocked.

He shook his head and looked at me. "Expression that means that it's none of your business."

"Welp," I said with a slight shrug of my shoulders, "I guess that's too bad since I'm already kinda, sorta worried," He stayed silent and left me alone with the thoughts running themselves ragged in my cranium. I let out a slight sigh. "Dude, you've barely been anywhere that we have. I mean, when I was diagnosed in the hospital, you weren't there and the morning of that you weren't home. Where have you been?"

Raph shut his locker and relocked the lock before beginning to walk away. "I don't want to talk about it."

I was quick to walk in front of him and block him from moving from his position. "I wasn't asking you to tell me. I'm _telling_ you to tell me."

"That's too bad, then," Raph growled out looking away from me, "because I'm not telling you any time soon."

I was getting a bit frustrated. He had never tried this hard to keep a secret from me. I know that I am typically the calmest out of the four of us, but right now I was beginning to feel like the title of such was slipping ever so quickly from my fingertips. "You've been ignoring me, you've yelled at Mikey, and you're disrespecting Leo more so than normal-"

"Leo's not our father, Donatello! We don't have to listen to him!" Raph was about to pop a vein, I knew. This was always a touch subject for him, but pressing the subject may be the only way for me to get his secret out of him.

My eyes hardened a bit. To be Raph's twin, you had to forget about sympathy in order to keep your title up. "Raph, you have to accept everything at some point! Leo's not our father, but he was kind enough to go through several court sessions in order to keep us! He could have allowed all of us to be put into orphanages and be split up!" I yelled, thankful that there were no more kids in the school's hallways. The teachers seemed oblivious. They must have been in their classrooms with the doors shut. "He deserves respect! He's not our father, but Mom and Dad are-"

"Don't you dare fucking say it!"

"They're dead, Raphael! You have to accept this! You've been in denial for far too long! There are things that we don't want to accept but still have to anyways and this is one of them! You can't keep rebelling because of this! You can't keep acting like your actions don't have consequences because they damn well do!" I yelled, breathing heavily and harshly. During my rant at some point my hands must have latched around his wrists because that's where they were at the moment. He had been struggling to break free, but for some reason he had been having trouble detaching himself from my grip. I wasn't _that_ strong. Especially with the whole disease thing that I had. That just topped off the cake. So why was Raph having so much trouble escaping from me?

He looked at me with fire in his eyes and perhaps a bit of wetness. "Let go of me, Donatello!"

"Not until you tell me where you go." I prompted, standing strong and my hands only clasping around his wrists tighter.

He growled, eyes fighting over which to do. I could see it. "I can't tell you. It's for your own good as well as our family's."

My eyes narrowed. "Well, then I guess we'll both be here for a while, won't we?"

Raph shrugged. "I suppose so."

OoOoOoO

I sat on my bed in a bit of a fit. Raph still hadn't told me where he was going. We had only left our spots when a teacher had forced us to leave the school, which was about five going on six. I was quite angry when the teachers forced us home, but fighting with a superior wouldn't have been a wise choice, so Raph and I had complied.

Why was middle school so insistent on tearing the two of us apart? How many arguments had we had since middle school started up? I couldn't count them. I could only stare up at the ceiling and wait for the seconds to tick by. Soon, seconds turned to minutes. Then minutes turned into hours. Then hours turned to days. And as the days passed by, not a single thing changed. Raph still avoided me, he didn't speak to Mikey, and he disobeyed Leo without a single word spoken to him.

The only time I'd really see him is when he came home at nine at night and flop down onto his bed, falling asleep in long sleeved shirts and jeans, which I found very peculiar.

He always slept in t-shirts or even just flat out shirtless sometimes during the summer. He always wore shorts though. To see him suddenly always wear long sleeves was an oddity that I never thought I'd live to see. I had tried to confront him about it several times, but not once had he answered me. He continued to walk on, not speaking.

Irritation had long since coursed through out my veins. Why was he being so stubborn?! So secretive?! I found myself having to bite my tongue back a lot more now. I had to figure out what was wrong with him. I just didn't know how.

"Raph, what the hell?! Mikey?!"

I froze on my bed. That was Leo's voice. I jumped to my feet before running out of the bedroom and making a mad dash down the steps, looking out over the railing before making it all the way down. I peered into the living room, out and over the railing. Raph stood there, panting, bleeding, and bruised. The sleeves of his shirt were torn from the seams, revealing heavily cut and bruised arms. There was a long cut running down the right side of his face, which kept his right eye shut tightly showing his evident pain.

Little Mikey was held tightly in his arms. He looked dirty. Not nearly as injured-not even close-but he definitely looked like he had been rolling around in the dirt. His shirt was tore in some areas, and he had a long cut on his arm that had long since stopped bleeding, but his eyes were wide and held nothing but fear, pain, and tears. I gasped at the each of them. "What happened?!"

All of their gazes snapped up to me, not having heard me run down the stairs. No one spoke. No one moved. No one hardly breathed. I grew frustrated. "Are your ears full of cotton?! What happened?!"

Mikey looked at me with the most tearful eyes I had ever seen. I almost regretted asking. Almost. A part of me still needed to know what had happened. Leo looked at Raph and nodded. "Go to the bathroom so we can clean you both up. After that, I'm going to need an explanation." I came down the rest of the way, looking at Raph before taking Mikey from his arms so that Raph could go get cleaned up.

Mikey is quick to bury his face in my shoulder. Leo takes Raph up the stairs to get him cleaned up. I look to the cut on Mikey's arm and begin to walk to the kitchen. "How about we get that cut of yours cleaned up?"

Mikey whimpered slightly, and I rubbed his back. I wanted to know what exactly had happened to get both of my brothers so injured, but I felt like asking Mikey about the situation would not have been a wise decision. I walked into the kitchen and sat him down on the counter before walking to the cupboard that held a few bandages and some cleaning peroxide.

I grabbed the items I needed before returning back to my injured little brother. "Let's run some water over that cut of yours, ok?" I asked, taking his arm gently. He nodded slightly with a sniffle before I stuck his arm under the water that ran from the faucet.

He hissed upon the water's contact before he got a bit used to the feeling. When the wound looked fairly clean, I grabbed the bottle of peroxide and opened the cap. He gave a gentle whimper before I even began to pour the liquid over his cut. Probably because he knew that it stung. I give him a gentle smile. "Hey, it's going to be ok. Here, give me your other hand," I said, offering my hand to him. He nodded slightly before taking my hand into his. "If it hurts that bad, squeeze my hand. I don't care how tightly. It won't hurt me."

Mikey gave out another tiny sniffle before nodding. He squeezed my hand, closed his eyes tightly, and clenched his teeth together, bracing himself for the stinging sensation that was about to run throughout the entirety of his arm. I looked at him sadly before pouring some of the liquid onto his cut and watching as it flowed down the entire cut. He hissed again and whimpered, but not once did he make a verbal complaint about the pain. The lack of a verbal response confused me, but not once did I question him.

I watched as the peroxide bubbled and simmered in his cut before eventually calming down. I poured another douse and continued the process until the bubbling stopped completely. Once that was finished, I wrapped his arm in one of the bandages that wrap completely around.

Once I was finished, I picked him back up off of the counter and walked back out to the living room. I sat him down on the couch and I sat next to him. I waited for him to say something. Anything, really. But he remained silent.

So we sat there, in silence, while we waited for Leo to come back down stairs with Raph.

OoOoOoO

We ended up waiting hours. So many hours that the time began to tick past Mikey's bedtime. Eventually, he ended up falling asleep during the long wait. A few minutes after Mikey had fallen asleep, I had ended up carrying him up the stairs and into his bedroom.

I stripped him of his shirt before placing a more loose and comfortable shirt on him. I stripped him of his jeans before putting him in some pajama pants. I lied him in his bed, tucking the blankets over him and around him. He stirred slightly, but he did not awake.

I looked at him sadly, placing a gentle hand on the top of his head and my thumb rubbing his forehead softly before giving his forehead a gentle kiss.

I stood up, just staring at him a bit. His baby blue eyes were closed, his mouth open as he slept, being his source of oxygen. I gave him a sad smile before flipping the switch of his nightlight on and heading to the door. I placed a hand on his door, looking back at him one last time. I let out one last smile before slipping out the door and shutting it behind me.

I moved down the stairs and back down into the living room where I saw Leo sitting on the rightmost side of the couch and Raph sitting in the recliner across from the couch. Each sat silent and still. I could have easily mistaken either of them for statues if it wasn't for their rising chests revealing signs of breath and life.

I descended down the stairs and down into the living room. I walked over to the couch where I sat on the leftmost side of the couch. "So," I said, placing my chin in my palm and my elbow on the armrest of the couch, "does anyone want to tell me what happened?"

Leo looked over at me. "He hasn't spoken once since I've seen him leave for school this morning."

I felt my eyes widen. "Neither has Mikey," I looked to Raph with questioning eyes. "What in the world happened, Raphael? You can't keep silent."

"And I don't intend to." Both Leo and I were startled back by Raph's words. His voice…

Oh gosh, his voice…

It sounded gravelly, unused, and…almost literally burnt out. Like he had just escaped a burning building after being inside for hours on end. "Raph…what happened? Who did this to you and Mikey? _Why_ did they do this to you and Mikey?"

"If you shut up, I'll explain."

I looked to Leo, and Leo looked to me. He nodded, and I nodded back. "We're listening." Leo said, us both now looking back at Raphael.

Raph rubbed his hands together before he nodded. "Ok. Over the past few weeks, I've been meeting up with Nate," That alone gave me the worst feeling in the world. "He said that he'd leave Donnie alone if I met up with him and allowed him to do whatever he wanted with me. But it wasn't only for Donnie. Mikey was in danger as well. Nate doesn't fuck around with stuff like this."

"Language." Leo reprimanded, but not as harshly as normal.

Raph rolled his eyes, wincing slightly from the stitches Leo had done near his eye. "Anyways, I had agreed. So they did whatever they wished. They'd cut and burn my arms and legs, hence why I've been wearin' long sleeves. They beat me up, and I don't fight back. It's all the deal. They had been lighting fire and they forced me to keep my head over it and inhale the smoke, which is why my voice sounds burnt out like it is."

I was very uneasy at this point. "That explains a lot about you, but…why was today worse? Normally, obviously, you've been able to hide it. And why did Mikey have that nasty cut on his arm?"

Raph let out a sigh. "Mikey followed me. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but he did. He must have seen them do some…things…to me because he had been really mad. Heh, little fighter he is, he tried to take them all on. Ended badly on his part, but I had eventually gotten free of the bindings that they had had on me. All they got in on him was that cut, but I wouldn't let them get any more on him. So all of his blows went to me. We eventually escaped, but just barely. They're still looking for us now."

I clenched my teeth shut tightly. Raph was such an idiot sometimes! "So you've been letting them do this to you for how many gosh damned weeks exactly?!"

"Donnie, lang-"

"Don't you dare, Leonardo!" I yell at him, shooting up from the couch. "Don't you even try!" I look to Raph with obvious rage on my face. "Why didn't you try to get help from someone when they threatened you in the first place?! Why didn't you bother to even try?! This was extremely dangerous and stupid! You could have been killed!"

"Nate wouldn't go that far!"

"The hell if he wouldn't! He's a dog infected with rabies for crying out loud! He'd kill you the chance he got to!"

"He's had his chance for weeks!"

"But he knew that we would notice you gone! He couldn't kill you if he didn't want to be caught!"

"He wouldn't have been!"

I was fuming. I could practically feel the steam pouring from my ears. How stupid could he be?! Just how naïve was he?! "Whatever you want to believe. Fine. I'm done trying to knock sense into you." I made my way towards the stairs and up them.

"Donatello!"

But I ignored him. I opened my door and slammed it before jumping onto my bed, and lying there, staring up at the ceiling.

Nate was still searching for my twin brother and my baby brother.

 **Hey guys! So sorry about the delay in production of chapters! Things have been a bit crazy on my end of the screen, but I am ok! Though, I doubt a lot of you are actually reading this and I doubt a lot of you actually care, lol XD But I just felt like an apology was an order. So I apologize for not updating _any_ stories since October. ^^; I probably wouldn't have gotten this chapter done as soon as I did if it weren't for two people who were asking me questions about the next chapter and actually ended up giving me a few ideas. You both know who you are! Anyways, did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know! I love to read your guys' reviews! :)**


	11. Are They Still Mad At Me

I heard a faint knocking on my door in the night. I looked to the alarm clock that sat on my nightstand. _2:12am._ I groan lightly, but not so much that the person on the other side of the door could hear. My fingers fumble for my black, rectangular, framed glasses. Once my fingers interlocked around them, I unfolded the ear pieces and placed them upon the ridge of my nose. I threw back the covers before placing my feet on the floor and making my way over to the door where the knocking was coming from. Groggily, I turned the handle of the door and allowed it to slowly creek open. My eyes widened when I noticed who the person was.

Mikey stood there, whimpering and crying, his baby blanket being hugged to his chest by his right arm.

My eyes softened at his defeated expression. I felt a heavy pang at my heart as it began to throb with sympathy and worry. I ushered him in with my right arm behind his back. "Mikey...Michelangelo, what's wrong?"

He only looked at me with teary eyes and shaking hands which caused his baby blanket to begin to tremble along with his hands. I picked him up in my arms, being mindful of the gash in his arm. I sat him down softly on my bed, continuing to hold him tightly within my arms. "Mikey, what's wrong?" Though, I already had a guess of what exactly what had been bothering the small boy of eight years. Yet, he stayed silent, not answering a single question I had asked. Aside from the occasional whimper, Mikey was completely silent. Usually when he had a nightmare, he would always tell me about them. So, of course, his silence sent off alarm bells, red flags, and all other assortment of signals off inside of my head to the point of where my head began to hurt.

I did not push the matter, figuring out that he was not going to answer me no matter what I tried to ask him. So instead of interrogating the poor child, I held in my arms instead, rubbing his back and letting him cry into my shoulder. I rocked him back and forth gently before the satisfying sound of his tiny snores filled the silence of the room. I felt a soft smile appear on my lips at the sweet sound.

"The kid calm yet?" Raph's now raspy voice rang out, startling me and causing me to nearly fall right out of the bed. I glared at him within the darkness that had surrounded our room, the shining, bright, moon being the only source of the light that peered in through the pale curtains.

"He's asleep," I answer roughly. I hear a sigh before Raph moves over and turns the nozzle on his lamp, a new found light that ran from electricity as opposed to the natural lighting of the moon began to flood the room. Normally, this would have angered me-especially if I had been asleep-but since I was not, and Mikey slept like the dead as did Raph, I was not angered by the action. But I was confused. "What's with you turning on the light?" I inquired.

Raph looked at me for a bit before sitting up in his bed, blankets still covering his waist and anything down. He crossed his arms and leaned them against the backboard of his bed, finally leaning his head against them. "Nate's still out there," He said solemnly, after a long moment of silence. "He's still out there, and he's looking for Mike."

"He's looking for you, too." I reminded him with a deadpanned look and a bit of anger from earlier that had never decided to simmer down.

"I couldn't care less if he was after me," He shot back, looking towards my way. "I don't care if he literally burns my voice out to the point where I can't even use it. I don't care if he cuts all of my limbs off or even if he tears my guts out with a knife. He can shoot me for all I care. But messing with my family is where I draw the line. And I most certainly will not let him hurt the baby of the family." Raph said, angrily. His emerald green eyes were burning with the fire of passion that described his entire personality flawlessly.

"Well, neither am I, and I highly doubt that Leo would let anything happen to Mikey. None of us would let anything happen to him," I said softly as I unconsciously began to stroke Mikey's light blonde hair. I looked at his pale face that was dotted with millions upon millions of freckles. Well, maybe not millions. They weren't aligned all over his face, just pretty much over the ridge of his nose and spilling subtly over his pale cheeks. For some reason, the kid was extremely pale. That wasn't anything new, but it always confused me why he was so pale. His complexion resembled that of a Californian surfer, though his voice was too high pitched yet to see if he had the correct accent for such a stereotype. Though, I highly doubted that he would have the accent. Sure, we all did spend two years of our lives in California, but other than that, Mikey had always lived in New York. He didn't have a New Yorker accent like Raph did. Honestly, Raph was the only one out of the four of us who did have a New York accent. Not even Mom or Dad had one. "He's the baby. And it's the big brothers' job to keep the baby safe."

Raph chuckled slightly, his eyes directed towards the ceiling. "We're Hamato's," he reminded me, "it's what we do. Not saying that not every brother does it for the younger one's...but seeing us not stick up for each other would be like Mikey turning down pizza."

It was my turn to chuckle after that statement. It was true. Seeing Mikey turn down pizza would pretty much mean that the apocalypse had begun. Kind of like that one show Raph likes to watch, _The Walking Dead._ I watched one episode after Raph had told me not to. I had thrown up within the first forty-six minutes that the episode had begun. It was just so graphic, which was probably why Raph enjoyed the show so much. Things like that doesn't bother him that much. Me on the other hand...I should have heeded to his warning. "That's true. The kid wouldn't turn down pizza even if he had the flu. And he's always at his worse when he's ill." Mikey's stomach always upset him when he was sick. No matter what it was that he had, his stomach would always upset him, even if it was just an ear infection. "Yeah, that's true, Raph."

He shook his head, a smile illuminated upon his bruised and cut face. "I'm going back to sleep." He said as he reached over and turned the nozzle on the lamp, plummeting the room back into darkness without asking for my permission to do so. I sat in the darkness for a moment, blinking to get my vision used to the new found darkness. After a moment, I lied back down next to Mikey. I watched the clock on our wall tick for a bit before speaking. "I love you, bonehead."

There's a moment of silence, and I'm almost positive that Raph was already asleep before he speaks back. "Love you, too, nerd."

OoOoOoO

 _Watching Raph sit on the porch while the rain fell steadily from the dark clouds that floated overhead was a setting that wasn't really common for the hothead who often enjoyed wearing red. He was sitting on the steps that led up to the porch and to the front door, so he was not protected from the rain that continued to fall steadily. This was a bit concerning towards the red cast that surrounded his arm, for the rain was coming down nearly as hard as water that protruded from a shower head, if not harder. I looked to the umbrella holder next to the front door, grabbing one out for the two of us to share. I open the front door and open the umbrella, sitting next to Raph, and keeping the umbrella over the both of us._

 _He looked to me for a moment before staring back out at the pouring rain. "Go inside, brainiac, you're going to get sick again."_

 _I only shrugged. I wasn't too afraid of getting terribly ill. Not when my brother was outside, in jeopardy of getting sick, himself. So I sat there next to him, holding the umbrella over both of our heads to prevent us from getting soaked, and staring out at the street while the rain continued to pour. I watched him wince every so often when a drop of rain fell upon his skin and into one of the many cuts that were littered upon his skin, some being held together with stitches, others with staples, and some were left alone, able to heal themselves. I frowned each time he winced, unsure of what to do for him._

 _So we sat there in silence for the better half of what had surely been ten minutes before he finally decided to break it. "Do you think...that Mom and Dad are still angry at me?" He asked quietly. So quietly that I nearly didn't hear it. I looked at him with my maroon eyes. He did not look back at me, however. His eyes continued to stay glued to the rain that continued to relentlessly try to drown the street, wafting the distinctive scent of wet pavement within the air. The last time Raph had seen Mom and Dad, they had been dreadfully angry at him. He had been missing some assignments that was costing him his grades and lowering them quickly to an F. Education had always been very important within our family. Mother and Father always accepted your grade if you were really trying your hardest, but missing assignments and half-assed work was never acceptable. They had been absolutely livid at Raphael when they had noticed his latest grade card. So livid that they took Raph to the school to have him apologize as well as finding ways to ensure that he got his work done on time and that it was his fullest effort._

 _Obviously, the trek back sealed Mother and Father's fate, leaving Raph alone to face the demons of being a failure as a son in his own head. Of course, Leo, Mikey, and I all knew that he was far from a failure. He was the best brother ever, and by far one of the best children anyone could ever have. I pursed my lips together tightly. "I don't think that they are anymore."_

 _"They were so angry at me, Donatello," He confided. "So so angry. They kept telling me how disappointed they were in me. They kept comparing me to Leo, Mikey, and you. Am I a failure of a son? Of a brother?" Raph so very rarely ever released deep emotions like this. This side of him at the moment was horrifying to me. I couldn't tell if the streaks that began to soak his cheeks was from droplets of rain being flecked up by the wind and over onto his face or if he was crying. I believed it to be the latter as opposed to the former, however. My hands began to tremble, honestly. They shook violently in confusion. In helplessness. In uselessness. I was unsure of what to say. But I couldn't let Raphael believe all of these false accusations that he was throwing at himself._

 _What was I supposed to say?_

 _"Well...what about the time I let Mikey fall down the stairs? Were Mom and Dad still angry at me?" I inquired, still looking at him._

 _While I continued to stare at him, he continued to stare out at the rain that was not finished drowning the street, much like his guilt and self anger was drowning himself. "Of course not. That was a long time ago. Mikey's six now. That was five years ago."_

 _I shrugged. "So. That was still horrifying. I nearly..." I almost choked on my words, taking a five second moment to recollect what I was going to say, "I nearly killed our little brother. Mom and Dad were angry at me, too, for a long time. Several months if not that entire year. You just got a bad report card. You didn't nearly become a murderer." My speech had become much more weak by the end than what it had started off as. At first, I had thought that I had a great point, but near the end I had begun to remember how sensitive the topic was to me._

 _Raph seemed frustrated. "Mom and Dad's last feeling towards you wasn't anger, Donatello!" He yelled, standing upright and facing me. "They were proud of you! You know that they're proud of you! You know that they still loved you when they died! They're last words to you were, 'I love you'! To me, they said that they were disappointed in me! You don't know what that's like, Donatello!" Raph yelled at me, anger ablaze in his emerald green eyes. And at that moment, I realized that the streaks on his face weren't from the rain._

 _They were tears._

OoOoOoO

I looked around the school hallway, instinctively waiting for Fang to arrive. When I remembered that she wasn't going to, I continued to stand there. I wasn't waiting on anyone else. I just stood there, wanting to watch her round the corner just to see her pale face and blue hair pulled up into a pony tail by her red scrunchie. I wanted to kiss her lips again like I did that one time.

But she was gone.

I didn't move until I felt a hand on my shoulder causing me to jump. My eyes widened, my head turning violently to face whoever owned the hand that continued to touch my shoulder. I felt myself begin to relax when I realized that it was just Cody. He smiled softly. "Miss her?"

I looked at him and nodded slightly. "Yeah." If you asked past me, I would have said no. I wouldn't have believed that I would ever love her like I had begun to. But I did. I missed her terribly. And everyone who knew me was beginning to see how much I did like her.

Cody nodded slightly, smiling sadly. "C'mon," He said, clapping my shoulder, "go get your books. Before we go to my house to study, I'll take you to get ice cream. My treat."

I smiled slightly, letting my bottom lip come out slightly in a pout. "With sprinkles?"

Cody chuckled and shook his head, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me to my locker. "Only if you're good, mister!"

I laughed slightly, pushing my glasses up with my free hand and adjusting my backpack better. But on our way to my locker, I heard someone else in the hallway. Someone that wasn't in any assortment of academic activity. "Wait," I said hastily. "Something's not right." And so Cody and I slunk our way towards the unknown people. I began to realize that the people were at Raphael's locker. They were cackling and laughing in awful manners and ways.

"The goon's sure gonna get in trouble for this!"

"For what? The weed or the magazines?"

"Would you two chuckleheads keep it down?! A teacher might overhear!"

"You idiot! All of the teachers are in their rooms! They're not going to hear us!"

I looked at Cody, signaling for him to stay before I continued to weave in and out between lockers. When I came close to Raph's locker, I peeked my head around to see who it was.

My eyes widened.

It was two other kids along with Nate.


	12. Please Speak

Anger began to course through my veins. I began to tremble as my cheeks and ears began to glow a vibrant red that had nothing to do with embarrassment. No. I was absolutely furious. So furious that the color decided to take over my face. Cody looked at me with a face that showed hesitation and a bit of fear. "Maybe we should get a teacher..."

"No," I said harshly. "They've been getting off the hook for far too long. Hurting my brothers was going over the line. If someone doesn't do something to stop these jerks then they're just going to continue to torture not only Raph, but Mikey and I as well," I looked to Cody with hard eyes. "They can mess with me all they want, but when they start messing with my loved one's is when I draw the line, and that line's been crossed."

Cody looked beyond nervous as his hands began to twiddle with each other. He was unsure of what to do, I could tell. "I still don't think that running into this head on is going to do any good. You could get hurt or worse, and...what would Raph, Leo, or Mikey do if that happened? Hell, what would _I_ do if that happened?"

" _If_ I get hurt," I said, breathing heavily through my nostrils, " _then_ you go for an adult. A teacher, the principal, your parents, hell, Leo if you want...but I'm taking care of this now. I'm done letting these delinquents get off of the hook while others have to suffer.," I said lowly, eyes glaring at Nathaniel, seeking out to kill this kid if it wasn't against the law. He was Satin on Earth, I was sure. I made a move to go towards Nate, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I froze slightly before looking back.

Cody's eyes were filled with concern and fear. He didn't want to let go of my shoulder, I could tell. Because he knew that as soon as his hand left my shoulder, I was going after Nate, the most dangerous person in this school, and ranking up in the top twenty of the world. He took in a deep breath, eyes closing gently before gracefully fluttering back open as his inhaled breath was exhaled. "Just...be careful. I already had a scare with Casey. I don't need you going back to the hospital after you've just been diagnosed.

Above all else, he was scared. He was frightened. And to be honest, so was I. I don't know what this rush of adrenaline in me was. It was definitely foreign in my usually calm mind, but I realized that I _had_ to do this, no matter what anyone else said or thought. This was for Raph, and Mikey, and my family, for all of my piers, and for all of the people that would encounter Nate in the future. I nodded slightly at Cody before I made a move over to wear Nate and his little rat pack was.

"So...having fun?" I asked them as I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the lockers across from mine and Raph's. When Nate noticed me his eyes widened before his mouth formed upward in a dangerous and horrifying smirk.

"Seems as if the fun's just about to begin in fact." He said, cracking his knuckles.

I didn't make a move, however. I just stood there, arms crossed and anger a bit evident in my facial features. "Look, I know we've had our fair share of rough ups in the past..." I said casually with a sigh before taking a few steps closer to Nate, but not too many to appear threatening. I looked up at him, eyes calm and mouth blank. And before either of us knew it, I had my hands pressed up against his shoulders and his back was pressed up against the lockers. He struggled, his teeth clenched in anger and confusion at a nerd like me having such strength. "But you messed with my family, and that's where I draw the line, you little shit, especially since you messed with my baby brother!" I kicked him in the shin causing him to let out a yelp of pain. The members of his rat pack looked ready to jump in and help, but all it took was for me to scowl at them before they backed down, and my attention refocused on Nate.

"Hey, man, I don't want any trouble..."

"Oh, but you most certainly got it," I snarled, yanking the weed out of his hand, temporarily letting go of one of his shoulders. "And by the actions that you have done, I believe that you most definitely were out on the search for a bit of good...mischief."

His teeth were clenched and his hands were balled into fists. He kept struggling, attempting to get out of my grip, but my new found strength kept his pinned down to the lockers. "You better leave my brothers alone and I mean for good. Stop tormenting Raphael, and don't you ever dare to touch Michelangelo ever again! I'm being nice here," I growled, my knee going right in between his legs. "If you ever and I mean _ever_ mess with my brothers, friends, or anyone else for that matter...you're going to have _Hell_ to pay!" I brought my knee up and smashed him right where no man should ever be hit. But Nate was no man. He wasn't even a boy.

He was a monster.

Nate fell to the ground when I let go of his shoulders, overwhelmed with pain. He curled up on the ground, his knees brought up to his stomach to try to help alleviate the pain. I looked around at all of the other boys that surrounded us. Boys that followed Nate around and strived to be just as monstrous as their _idol_. "This goes for all of you, punks! Don't let this warning go over any of your heads!" I shout.

I grab the lock from Raphael's locker that he must have forgotten to lock once again and lock it to ensure that the idiots didn't bother to try doing what I had just warned them not to.

But hey, idiots make the world go round, huh?

Cody had been watching behind the lockers anxiously, eyes wide with horror and anxiety, but as I began to walk closer and closer to him, the more his eyes began to flood with a feeling of relief. "You scared me, bro." He said breathlessly once we had walked out of ear shot of Nate and his rat pack.

I shrugged slightly, moving my bangs out of my eyes. "It honestly wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be," That much was true. I thought that Nate would have brought out a pocket knife or something of the like. I was quite shocked that he hadn't.

I just hope that they got the message and started to leave my family and others alone.

OoOoOoO

"It's nice here...I suppose," Fang said before blowing more bubbles that began to float up in the sky and closer and closer up to the bright blue sky that hovered over us. We sat on a wooden ledge that was directly outside of her room and was easy to access via her window. "I mean...it's difficult trying to get used to coming home and being accepted with open arms rather than..." Her words began to drift and her head began to wander as she stared out blankly at all of the other houses that lined the street. Her bubble wand fell limply in her hand and her bottle of bubbles nearly fell to the ground once her grip left. I caught the bottle just in time before it had fallen to the grass that was down on the first level of the two story house.

I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and gave her a calm and unforceful shake. She shook her head and snapped out of her trance like state. "Huh? Did you say something?"

I gave her a small sympathetic smile. "You drifted again." Her hazel eyes filled with realization before she placed her head in her hands. It always embarrassed her when that happened. Mainly because the first time that she had drifted and I hadn't known what was going on, I had called her name for nearly a minute before she had snapped out of it. But I know how to handle it better now, thankfully. I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to me, her nuzzling her head into my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Donatello." She apologized. Though, her apology came out rather muffled due to her mouth being pressed up against the cloth of my purple T-Shirt.

"You don't need to apologize, Fang, I promise," When she looked back up at me, her lips were up turned into a gentle smile causing me to smile back. Her lips were an elegant peach color that hid her absolutely pearly white teeth. Her blue hair was magnificent. But there were still so many things I didn't know about her. "Why did you parents name you Fang?" I asked.

She looked a little surprised, but she didn't look offended. "They, uh...they didn't."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" I was genuinely confused. Terribly confused. What did she mean that her parents didn't name her Fang? Was it a nickname?

" _They_ never did name me," She specified. "I mean...they gave me horrible nicknames like mistake, and burden, and so forth, but they never did _really_ name me. I didn't have a real name until kindergarten when I met my best friend. She was kind. Very nice. We grew up together. Well...'grew' up, we're still only in middle school. But she was my anchor through most of the shit that my parents put me through. She asked me my name on the first day of kindergarten, and I told her that I didn't have one. So she spent the rest of that day thinking long and hard. She wanted to give me a name. The most beautiful name that she could think of. And maybe at the time it seemed like a strange and childish name...but now I wouldn't trade it for anything. Because it was the first thing that the first person who cared about me gave to me." She explained, looking out longingly at the setting sun.

I looked at her with slight pain filled eyes. "Wow...that's rough. I'm assuming that you don't see her much anymore."

She took in a deep breath, held it for a minute and exhaled. "Yeah, I haven't seen her a while, and jumping into this foster home isn't helping much either," She chuckles slightly before taking her wallet out and looking at a photo on the inside. "Honoka was real nice. Raph would have liked her. She's a real hothead."

I laughed gently as I looked at the picture as well. Honoka had black hair, her right side longer than the other, but the left side wasn't shaved. Her eyes were and emerald green color, nearly the same color as Raph's, if not a bit lighter. There was a single purple streak that started at the right side of her hair before stopping at the beginning of her left side. "Yeah, Raph probably would like her. That or butt heads with her."

That got Fang to laugh right out. Her laugh was so beautiful, but no where as beautiful as what she was. "Yeah," She agreed, snuggling close to me, "they probably would have."

I look out at the sunset with her, but my eyes lingered back over to her. Her eyes were shut and there was a small smile on her face. She looked happy. Genuinely happy. I loved seeing her genuinely happy. It happened so rarely that I savored each moment when she was truly happy.

"When did you decide to dye your hair blue?" I asked curiously, resting my chin on the top of her head.

She seemed hesitant to answer. "I...I never did."

"What are you talking about?"

"It used to be brown," She said, ignoring my question. "It was brown until I turned three. My parents performed some assortment of experiment on me that involved dunking my entire body into a tub full of dangerous and not as well known chemicals. Some chemicals made me feel as if my skin was literally being eaten away at and some burned. Others had no immediate side affects, but I would get real sick afterwards. Like...deadly sick. They did the same experiment on me with a different set of chemicals one day, and...it didn't really do anything. At least not immediately. It didn't hurt or burn and didn't make me sick. They didn't examine the chemical any further and tossed me back into my room, but later that day, my brown hair began to turn blue. I was confused and scared and I didn't know what to do except tug at my hair and hope that my hair would stop changing. But...it didn't. No matter how much I screamed and cried. And ever since then, even when I cut my hair, it grows back naturally blue."

Man, I couldn't stop asking the wrong questions, could I? But she didn't look necessarily upset or angry over this question. No, she still looked...calm...content. "I'm so sorry you went through that, Fang."

"Don't be," She said tiredly. "I like my blue hair now. It makes me look like an anime girl."

OoOoOoO

"Please, speak, Mikey," I pleaded at my silent brother as he continued to watch his favorite movie on the TV, but he just remained silent and shook his head, much to my confusion, concern, and over all frustration. "Please, baby brother. I really miss your voice. I don't want you to become a mute." But this only earned more silence from the young eight year old. I groaned before standing and heading to the kitchen where Raph and Leo stood.

"No luck?" Raph hypothesized after seeing me enter the kitchen with the look of severe frustration on my face.

I threw my hands up in the air with frustration. "He just won't speak!" I brought my hands down and clutched my head in such frustration and confusion I thought that my head was going to explode. "It's been nearly a month since the incident! Why won't he speak?!"

"Do you guys think that we should send him to a specialist?" Leo questioned, leaning his crossed arms up on the counter of the island. Mikey hadn't spoke since the incident with Nate beating Raph up so bad and getting a nice sized gnash on Mikey's arm. Ever since then, Mikey had not uttered a single word, and all of us were scared and concerned out of our minds. Not even Raph knew what was up with Mikey even though he was with Mikey during the incident.

"Eh...I don't know about that, but...here...let me try something," Raph goes out into the living room where Mikey is watching his movie. Raph grabs the remote and turns the TV off, much to Mikey's disliking. As expected, Mikey throws his arms up in confusion and protest, but not uttering a single word nor making a single sound of disapproval. "Mikey, why won't you speak?" Mikey ignores Raph's question and looks away. "Hamato Michelangelo, answer me when I'm speaking to you." To this, Mikey answers with a lousy shrug of his shoulders, his baby blue eyes filled with annoyance.

"You can get annoyed all you want, Michelangelo," I voice from the kitchen, stepping to the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, "but something needs to be done. You've been completely silent for nearly a month, and we're all extremely concerned, even your teachers. We're concerned, and we need to be told what's wrong so we can some how fix it."

Mikey, in turn, crossed his arms against his chest and let out a huff of air, no vocals used. He was pissed, we could tell, but nonetheless, a change had to be made.

"Mikey," Leo cut in, making his way over to Mikey, and I following Leo in suit, "we're not trying to be the bad guys here, we're really not...but Donnie's right. We're concerned and scared. You haven't spoken in a full month, and the Michelangelo that we know can hardly keep his mouth shut for five minutes let alone a month," Leo placed a gentle hand on Mikey's shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Mikey, we honestly really just want to help you more than anything else. You're the baby of our family. Mom and dad's last kid..." Leo's voice trails off for a moment, his dark blue eyes locked onto Mikey's baby blue one's, "and as Mom and Dad's first kid, it is my job to keep all of you safe, and Raphael's and Donatello's and my job to keep _you_ safe. Michelangelo...you have to realize, you're our pride and joy. You're the reason that all of us wake up in the morning. Because even through the hardships that we've been through, Mom and Dad's passing, Raph's hospitalization after the accident, and Donatello's death scares in the hospital, you're the one who can always cheer us up and keep us thinking positively."

By the end of Leo's speech, Mikey has tears building up in his eyes as well as Raph and I, even Leo did, too. Mikey's lip began to quiver a little. "Mikey, you're our sunshine, and when our sunshine's been so quiet for so long, we get worried, so please, baby brother, why haven't you been speaking?" Raphael finishes off Leo's well said speech.

Mikey takes in short and quivery breath, almost as if he's about to burst into tears. And in shock and triumph, he speaks.

"It hurts."

I cringe.

He sounds horrible. His voice is all raspy and it broke a lot in those single two words.

I was horrified. "It hurts to speak, Mikey?" I asked to get a better clarification on the issue at hand. He gave a gentle nod and sniffed, wiping at his teary eyes. "And it's been hurting for a month?" He nods again. I look to Leo, Leo looks to Raph, Raph looks to me. We're all in a circle of concern and horror.

"Should we take him to the hospital?" Raph questions as Mikey twirls the edge of the blanket he had been snuggling up with in his fingers.

Leo and Raph both looked to me, the resident genius. I looked back at him, watching as he sobbed and cried and hiccupped before looking back at the others. "If his voice has been bothering him for a month, and it's still agitated I think we should seek out medical profession."

"Y'know, you could just say that we should take him to a hospital like a normal person, nerd." Raph scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

"Not the time," Leo said with a roll of his eyes and an exasperated tone. I nodded in agreement. Leo looked back to Mikey and took his hand in his own much larger one. "Mikey," he said calmly, "we're going to take you to a hospital, bud to make sure that your voice is ok, alright?"

Mikey shook his head, beginning to cry even more. He hated hospitals. We all knew this. He's always hated them. The white walls, the cold tiles, the sterile smell, the never ending sound of heart monitors and other various machines whirring, he hated it all.

And who could blame him?

After being in there so often, I hated them myself.

"I know you don't like hospitals, Mike," I said softly, "but we really need to take you there so that we can make sure nothing is seriously wrong with your voice. Don't you want to be able to speak without it hurting like crazy?" I bargained. Hesitantly, Mikey gave a slight nod, signifying that that was indeed what he desired. I gave a small smile before picking him up in my arms. "C'mon guys, let's head out to the car."

OoOoOoO

Beep...beep...beep...beep...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

I hated this place.

And with the way that Mikey was trembling it was a dead give away to any by passers that he too hated this place.

I just tried to hold him closer and closer to me the closer we got to the check in desk. But the closer we got, the more he shook.

Mikey and I sat in a seat next to Raph while Leo wrote up the papers for Mikey's entrance. I bounced Mikey a bit, trying to calm his nerves at least a tiny bit.

"Haven't been here in a while." Raph stated, looking at me with a small smirk on his face.

I snorted. "You can say that again. It's only been two months, but it feels like two years to me," I could see the way that Raph was eyeing me. "In a good way, of course, Raph."

After Leo got the papers filled out, we waited for maybe an hour. If this was any other situation, Mikey would have fallen asleep, but considering that he was the patient in this scenario, he was much more high-strung. And eventually, the name that he had been dreading to come came.

"Hamato Michelangelo?"

Here we go...

 **Been quite a while, huh? Sorry for the delay. My laptop just got repaired not too long ago and I am finally able to update from home. Seeing as this hasn't been updated in a while, I thought to update this one before my ongoing Undertale story. For all you, though, who are interested in both Sidelines _and_ Do You Love Me, the next chapter of Do You Love Me should be posted soon enough. Thank you all. Please review, I enjoy hearing what you guys think. :)**


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